False Echoes
by Beckon
Summary: They had all practically been raised within the airless freedom of space; they had spent most of their lives studying and exploring it. So when given the opportunity to assist the newly released U.S.G. Libra, they immediately set course for the mining vessel. But there's something different on board. Something far worse than anything their imaginations could create.
1. Chapter 1

"Vessel is in sight, I repeat… visual contact is confirmed."

"Syncing orbit."

"When we get close enough, you'll need to disengage the gravity tethers-"

"I've done this before. I don't need your _tutorial _advice."

A blunt sigh escaped him at the short bickering from the two pilots up front before he switched his attention to the massive ship that seemed lifeless in the midst of the floating debris around it. It was beyond words in terms of a description; it was fascinating, majestic- certainly worth every million that went into it. It was setting a new standard for mining, able to retrieve new and unique materials from distant planets; able to harvest the ores and have them prepped for work by the time it reached Earth. Despite its massive size, it was still incredibly versatile and able to dock at colonies to restock or drop off requested ores. There had been some controversy with it in its beginning stages with some people rejecting the thought of venturing deeper into space; then again, these were the same people who rejected the Colony Project as well. Some people just didn't seem to enjoy the thought of space travel… which was terrible, because they had essentially made their lives out of it.

U.S.S. Libra.

"Look at her. Quite a sight, isn't it?"

He glanced over at the remark and looked to the dark-brown haired man who was seated in one of the two pilot seats; fingers were briefly hovering over the hologram screen in front of him but his eyes were cemented to the Libra.

It would be an understatement to say that they were all impressed by the ship; they had practically followed every news report there was about it and watched the live stream of it taking flight for the first time.

"She looks magnificent up here." he nodded as he turned back to the floating vessel. As they slowly drew closer towards the ship, more and more of the mining elements began to become visible. One could see the open beams for the loading bay, the massive turrets towards the back hull that were designed to clear away debris and possible asteroids that crossed its orbit; there was a complicated system of tethers on the lower belly of the ship that were used for transport between atmospheres.

"Much better than she did on Earth."

"You guys can jerk off to it later, we have more urgent business to deal with for now." their black-haired partner in the second pilot seat remarked; his arms were crossed over his chest as he seemed more focused on something else beyond them. "For instance… all the lights are out; only the emergency signals are flashing on the back hull."

"Maybe… they're trying to save energy? Do you keep the lights in your apartment on all the time?" Duo questioned.

"My apartment isn't floating light years into space." Wufei retorted, as he briefly glared at the braided man before he switched his attention back to the vessel. "And even then, with a ship of that size, it should have multiple generators running to keep the minimum amount of energy going at all time with the generators switching off at different intervals to keep from overheating. The emergency signals are a last resort type ordeal; it's one step away from complete engine failure."

He narrowed his eyes at the words as he studied the vessel once more; taking note of the how the pitch darkness of space seemed to have seeped into the windows of the ship. "Do you have any ideas for that?"

"Not a fucking clue." he replied with a shake his head. "With how much money and technology they put into that system alone, there's no reason why such a blackout would occur."

"With almost a thousand people on board, someone there has to have a nightlight or something. Is anyone picking up the phone?" Duo questioned before he turned his seat around to face the rest of the ship; pulling off the protective cover that wrapped around the curve of the arm of his chair, he threw it towards a door not too far from them. The rubber piece struck and bounced off the door frame, missing its initial target by only a few inches. "Yo Trowa, is anyone answering the phone in there?!"

It only took a few collective minutes before the door slid open and a fourth figure stepped out. He stooped down and picked up the thrown piece but tossed it between his hands for a brief moment before he threw it back towards the second pilot. "Unfortunately no. No matter how many times I tried to boost the signal, the most I was able to get was brief static."

"Great, so someone knocked the phone off the line too, perfect." the braided man muttered as fingers moved to pinch the space between his eyes. "Well… at least she has her looks, never said we were in it for her brain."

Quatre gave a light shake of his head at the words. "… That's certainly one way of putting it."

"So now what?" Duo asked, leaning back in his chair as he slowly turned it back towards the front.

"I guess this is where we do what we were hired to do." yet another voice, this one coming from the final member of their team. He had been sitting silently in the seated portion of the shuttle, seemingly busy overlooking details on the tablet in hand; he hadn't looked away from it the entire trip. "… Their shields are down, we should be able to get into the docking bay easily."

"The docking bay looks damaged, we may encounter some complications but our shields should be able to withstand the shock." Wufei started, although he appeared seemingly unconvinced about the plan.

"If not, then at least we have decent health insurance." Duo tagged in.

"… Our insurance doesn't cover possible in-space injuries." Trowa reminded.

"Then why the hell did we agree to this?"

"Because we love near-death experiences." Wufei replied. "Now, you might want to buckle yourselves in because we're bound to hit something on the way in and the last thing we need is one of you getting blood everywhere- like last time."

"Hey, I told you I wasn't buckled in."

"And I told you I didn't care."

Sighing, Quatre stepped back away from the viewing window and made his way towards the designated seating area in the back. Needless to say, this mission wasn't exactly starting off on the right foot but… there was still hope that it could turn itself around. Taking one of the available seats, he moved to unlock the thick straps that hung to the side of the chair. "Ann said the minimum hours this mission would take was fifteen; we'll be lucky if we last a quarter of that."

"Well… here's to hope and good health insurance." Trowa remarked.

"After this, I might need a doctor."

The seats themselves were sometimes more complicated in terms of logistics than most of their missions; what with the constant entanglement of the belts and buckles with one another- and if one released the buckle too quickly, it could snap back with enough force to break one's nose. They had each witnessed that happen before and… personally went through it as well. There was nothing quite like a nosebleed in zero-G. Not to mention, the buckles had a habit of getting stuck on their suits, which could cause some delays with getting the seatbelts on and off- causing an extra mess of problems.

This time seemed to go more smoothly though- at least, no one got hit.

"Alright, we are approaching the U.S.S. Libra, all passengers please buckle yourselves in and keep all hands and feet inside of the ride at all times."

"Duo, shut up."

This was going to be interesting.

Why on Earth did Ann think to send them all out as a full team for this mission?

The ship rocked slightly as they approached the mining vessel, drawing closer and closer to the seemingly dead giant that floated before them. From a distance, it seemed as though it was all going well enough… the docking bay was open and, as far as he could tell, was unguarded and unmanned. Which was odd for such a massive giant, but then again this was the same ship that appeared to be in a complete black out just the same.

He tried not to get ahead of himself with it.

There had to be some kind of explanation for it all… one that hopefully didn't involve some kind of wrongdoing. The ship's security was far too advanced for a takeover either from space or from one of the planets. Not to mention, the workers who worked on board were contracted to work in space for years at a time sometimes; they couldn't all just… leave overnight.

The lights around them flickered off and pitched them into darkness for a few seconds before flipping back on.

"What the hell…"

"Something's bugging out the system." Wufei started, fingers tapping at the screens in front of him- managing only a multitude of red pop ups.

"Jesus Christ, look at these error reports." Duo cursed as he tried to scroll through the highlighted mess that continued to grow in front of him. "We're losing all controls and the system's…" a brief pause seemed to come to him as a secondary screen flashed yellow. "Libra's got a jammer on board, Goddamnit- I knew such a pretty face had to be hiding a bitch behind it."

"If this keeps up, we're going to crash right into the secondary dock and split ourselves in two. Switching to manual controls."

"You're going to get us killed."

"This jammer will get us killed too, so pick your poison. Do you want them to have to vacuum up pieces of our bodies from deep space or at least have them nicely contained in this tin can?"

The braided man started to argue further before he decided to crush his own argument; pulling his hands away from the controls in front of him, he held them up in a gesture of defeat. "… Alright, switching to manual and letting Jesus take the wheel."

"Shut the fuck up."

The lights went off once again as the automatic systems were overrode and replaced with emergency lights as the manual controls came into power. This far out into space… manual controls weren't exactly encouraged- if anything they were a last ditch effort type deal. But they didn't really have time to argue this time around.

If they could just make it through the docking bay then… they should be good from there.

They just had to make it that far first.

"Approaching docking bay."

"We're going to hit the secondary dock regardless if you don't pull up, Chang-"

"I'm going to hit you if you don't shut up."

"You are both going to cause us to crash." Heero started.

"Closing down first shields." Wufei announced.

"You're not serious-"

"Maxwell, if you want to risk getting sucked out into space when we rupture the windshield, you go for it."

And just like that, the only sight to the outside was gone as the reinforced shield was pulled over the front; covering the viewing window. Manual controls with no possible visuals… they should've updated their wills before they left the base.

The ship shook before it jerked to the left, taking a hard hit to the right wing before it continued to collide with every single obstacle in its path. Each jerk was accompanied by a sharp reaction as the ship struggled to maintain its path.

The sound of metal shrieking and scraping against the docking pad echoed around them, painfully vibrating the ship as though it was a tin can. It bounced slightly before it skidded in sideways and crashed into something beyond their blinded sight. The crashed stillness was only slightly terrifying and they let it linger for a moment, just letting the crash settle down.

It felt like all of his bones had been broken and separated from his muscles.

His head was spinning and his vision had been knocked loose.

"Done."

"… Alright, ladies and gentlemen, the ride has come to a stop… please use the exit doors to your left and right." Duo started as he slowly unbuckled himself from his chair and pushed himself to his unsteady feet; one hand moved over his stomach as he almost doubled over. "Ooh, I'm going to hurl."

Their so-called Silent Leader merely set his tablet aside before he pulled himself free from his chair. "You are insane."

"Does it look like I give a damn?" Wufei questioned as he pushed himself to his feet just the same. "Now everyone suit up and get your rigs online, I don't have all day for anymore bullshit."

Shaking his head, he unbuckled himself from his chair and got to his feet just like the rest before he moved to activate the device on his right forearm. The suits they had were technically a prototype and were in their final stages to pass the test; they had been somewhat reluctant to agree to test them out but this mission wasn't supposed to be anything more than a check in. If anything, they were just giving the suits one last run through in space and testing their durability, that was it.

Keying in the right combination, he slid his fingertip from one end of the device to the next and watched as it lit up almost immediately.

"_Systems online. Updating vitals." _

Every suit seemed to say in sync in a robotic, feminized voice.

"It has a voice, are you kidding me?" Duo remarked as he toyed with the metal device. "Is there a silent feature?"

"_Heart rate: normal; blood pressure: normal."_

"This is going to get old real quick."

After waiting several minutes for the rigs to finish updating their vitals and bringing themselves online, they slowly moved to exit the ship; grabbing their weapons on the way out. At most, they only carried what could best be described as handguns with slight modifications to make them more effective in space. Ann had gone ahead and gotten them clearance in most sectors about the on-body weapons; they all had gone through the needed courses and training for each weapon, so it wasn't like they were reckless with them. Still, having to carry the little bit of extra weight tended to put some people around them on edge and they always had to deal with criticism about it. But, it would be a lie to say that the weapons didn't make them feel a little safer regardless of where they went.

Releasing the door lock, he listened to the eerie hiss of the lock coming loose before the door popped free from its frame and lowered itself to the platform outside.

"If the ground crew says anything… lie."

Stepping out onto the closet landing platform, he paused briefly at the sheer stillness of the dock around him. Every platform was empty, there weren't any other accompanying shuttles out, or even a maintenance cart at that. A few loose boxes seemed scattered across the closest walkway, while a few papers had dropped down to the tracks below. While it all seemed worth questioning, he tried not to set his mind completely on it.

Letting out a long sigh as he stepped out, Duo gave the docking bay a decent look over; surprised himself at the sheer… silence of it. And not just the silence, it was the absolute stillness. It felt like they were stuck in time somehow. And after a rather noisy landing like that one, it wasn't like someone could just overlook it. Space didn't erupt into noise at any given moment… then again, it was mostly a vacuum too, so noise didn't exist outside of this ship. Regardless, someone should've been running out at this point. He turned briefly to see his black-haired, co-pilot stepped out onto the platform. "Look, you scared off the ground crew. Or killed them."

"Good." he merely replied.

Maybe it was just him, but the stillness was starting to get under his skin. Despite the skin-tight suit, he still felt a chill run down his spine regardless. "Is anyone the least bit concerned that no one is here?"

"I'm more concerned that security hasn't come out to arrest us yet."


	2. Chapter 2

"Wow, are you fucking kidding me? Look at all this fucking damage."

He couldn't necessarily object to the words being used… the ship that they flew in on was now half merged with one of the loading platforms; the entire front half of it was crumpled and broken. The sound of various objects echoing below meant that something must've fallen off of it- something important no doubt.

"We lost the entire port booster." Trowa remarked steadily as though it was simple occurrence that happened from time to time. The taller man looked over the wreckage once before he simply stepped away to focus on another matter. "Looks like part of the engine's missing too- not to mention the coolant tanks are dripping."

"That's what we get for letting… _Wufei _drive." Duo muttered dryly, perhaps trying to keep the words to himself but failed in the overall objective to do so.

"You really want to play that game right now, Maxwell?"

The braided man didn't answer and instead headed for the door that resided at the end of the walkway.

He didn't want to stick around for the rest of the argument either and choose to head towards the door as well. The entire loading bay was empty with regards to what looked to be a few ships stored below… but judging from the mess of carts and crates around them, they were out of commission. For a ship as massive as this one, that was carrying the designated amount of people onboard, it was still eerily silent. And after smashing their own ship into the bay like that, shattering half of the frame and destroying part of the walkway behind them, someone would've came running out by now. Hell, he still got up if a simple fire alarm was going off- let alone an entire ship smashing into pieces in front of the front door. Still, perhaps he was just looking too deep into this, not that he could see how.

Duo was waiting impatiently at the end of the walkway as he tapped on the door controls and seemed frustrated it was taking so long. Eventually the blue symbol in the middle of the steel doors spun twice before the metal sheets pulled apart to reveal the small waiting room on the other end.

"Still no security." he remarked, echoing his previous comment.

"Still nothing." Quatre corrected as he stepped into the room and overlooked the brief amounts of clutter that filled the leather chairs and the loose papers that were strung across the floor. "Something's not right here."

"I'm sure they're like… having some kind of emergency lockdown or something. You know like the ones we had to do back at the Preventer's station? They used to lock down all the unnecessary rooms and evacuate people in order to conserve energy and such. And judging on how all the lights are out and nothing's really running, I can only assume they're following that kind of protocol. Maybe there was a fire or something and one of the engines took a hit, you never know."

He had to admit the man brought up some good points. He hadn't thought of that.

"Alright, our main priorities here are to board the ship and find out what's wrong. And seeing how we've already completed step one, we're moving on to step two." Heero remarked as the rest slowly followed into the small room; he seemed to be reading the brief report on his tablet before he powered the device down. "Let's not waste our time here if nothing's wrong."

"The power's out, the loading bay is deserted and we crashed our ship… I don't see us wasting time." Trowa replied, briefly clipping his gun to his side for now as he moved towards the locked door in front of them. To call it hacking would be overcomplicating it, but it was a bit more difficult than simply pushing the door open as well. He pressed his hand against the locked seal on the door and, using a device on the back of his hand, he isolated the key combinations and entered them in.

The door lock gave off a faint blue hue as a reward and the door swiftly opened soon after.

Yet another lounge and yet another empty room.

This one looked to be in more disarray though. The clear windows that lined one side of the wall to their right were smeared with dirty hand prints that… for a moment, looked as though they had been desperate to catch onto some kind of leverage of some sort. Chairs that had once been bolted to the center of the room were now broken from their frames and laid in scattered pieces across the floor; a few of them had been torn in half to reveal the white stuffing on the inside.

"I take back the whole fire idea." Duo muttered with a grimacing look as his dark eyes moved around the room first before he dared to step in.

"Looks like someone was trying to get out in a hurry." Wufei started as he walked into the room with ease, barely giving the place a look over. "It's not important. There should be a security port around here."

"I'm not getting any broadcast; if there was a team on shift, I'd at least be able to pick up on their radios." Trowa started. "I'm not even getting static at this point… It's like the whole system's on lock down."

"The emergency lights are on, that means the power's going out. There's a good chance the entire system is cutting the loose ends and conserving what it can; communication's one of the first five to go." Quatre replied as he slowly walked the perimeter of the room. He paused briefly at the glass wall and looked to see if there was anything of interest on the other side- unfortunately, all he got was a seemingly empty hallway with a locked door. Something did catch his eye though and he moved a little further down to see what light source had caught his eye. Tucked into the corner at the end of the corridor was, what he could best guess, a security console. "We got a console over here. If we can break into it, we might be able to lift some of these locks."

"That'll come in handy." Duo nodded as he walked over to confirm the sighting. Clapping a hand against his back, he moved to tug him slightly towards the nearby door. "Come on, we can break into that easily."

He moved to follow the braided man and holstered his gun at his side once more; figuring it'd be easier to move around with both of his hands free anyways and despite the looks of the ship… the gun wasn't entirely necessary. Stepping over the scattered remains of the chairs and what might've been magazines, they moved towards the only unlocked door the place had to offer and waited as it quickly slid back into its frame; releasing a sudden rush of air with the motion.

The emergency lights gave them little to work with and they stepped through the doorway with caution and tried to keep from running into whatever might be in their path. He didn't take immediate note of anything until he moved to step around the slight corner and heard the sound of what might've been his boot landing in water. It wouldn't have seemed like much but he paused anyways and glanced down at the metal paneling below him.

Dark red smears coursed over the floor below them.

Puddles were forming in small crevices and in the corners of the room while the half walls to his right were covered in smears that he could only best guess came from hands and arms being pulled away.

The sight of it turned his own blood cold and for a moment, it felt like he couldn't move.

"This is blood, isn't it?" the American questioned, either just realizing it now or having noticed it before and was just now coming out of shock.

"… It's hard to mistaken it for something else." he nodded, almost certain his voice was barely over a whisper.

The man gave a brief nod, his entire expression tense before he slowly tapped on the device that was strapped around his right forearm. It was aligned with all sorts of buttons and different projector screens that could be summoned up at once; it was marketed as top class communication equipment but there was a wide range of possibilities it could do. Ann was the one who really pushed for it, insisting that better testing would yield much needed results.

The faint yellow light that emerged from the device was the COM trigger.

"Hey guys…"

"Duo, you're in the next room." was the harsh response that followed.

If it phased the man any more than he already was, he didn't show it. "We've got blood in here. And by blood I mean… it's everywhere."

Silence responded at first.

"Well then I suggest you get that security console operational before you're added to the mess."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Duo cursed briefly under his breath before he shut the device down. He shot a brief glance back to him before he shook his head and continued on. "I told Ann we shouldn't have brought him. We tell him about blood and it doesn't even phase him in the least bit."

"Wufei's the only computer specialist we have on staff right now." Quatre reminded, hoping to take his mind off the bloodied mess beneath them as he slowly followed after the braided man. While it was… disturbing that the remark about the blood didn't even garner a more appropriate response from the man, he supposed it did keep them focused on the task at hand.

Passing by the locked door from before, he approached the projector console that was highlighted in blue for now; just above it was a brief blueprint of the U.S.G. Libra and… the amount of red portions that were flashing in warning was not good.

"Poor thing." the braided man remarked as he looked over the screen himself; eyes briefly overlooking the warning reports that were scrolling quickly on the panel. "Alright, let's see uh… this should do it." he moved to draw one of the dialogue boxes away before he quickly reconfigured the ones remaining and was rewarded a screen overhaul as a reward. "Easy enough. Not entirely sure what we did but as long as it works."

"Look at all the damage reports though." he replied, tapping on the screen quick enough to isolate one of the quickly scrolling boxes. "Tram systems are offline, oxygen is working at less than fifty percent efficiency and it looks like the asteroid defense system might be going down as well. If this was a regularity emergency situation, the tram system would make sense but… I highly doubt they're going to give up their oxygen and space defense."

"Not to mention the blood-" Duo started before the complete collapse of the lights around them cut him off.

Almost immediately following, the lounge before them began to flash as bright yellow lights flooded the area; a heavy siren played shortly after.

"What the fuck is wrong now?" Wufei retorted as he glanced briefly to the light that was spinning above them.

"Seems like a quarantine." Trowa started. "If we restarted the security lockdown, then it's more than likely just a precautionary run or we just happened to trigger it. No need to panic."

"Ha, sucks to be them." Duo chuckled briefly.

"We're stuck in a hallway full of blood, Duo…" he reminded, watching as the man's expression quickly fell afterwards. Shaking his head, he watched as the three on the other side idly stood aside and waited for the lights to eventually stop. He tried not to think back on the blood but it was hard not to; the air was stale and the scent of it was already beginning to get to him. And yet… something else was distracting him as well. It sounded like something was moving around above them, something in the vents maybe? But that had to have been impossible. He didn't think anyone could fit in those. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" the other man questioned before a hard thumping sound directly above them caught them both off-guard. "JesusFuckingChrist." he somehow slurred into one word, his complexion paling considerably. "What the hell was that? Did something pop loose or something?"

"I don't know, but it's moving…" he replied before he moved to tap into his COM system. "Hey, we're hearing some weird things on our side, I don't know what they are or what they mean, but watch out."

"A fan probably came loose or something." Heero started.

"A body might've gotten dislodged."

"Chang."

Another thud crashed above them and they both retracted back a few steps, eyes darting around in the darkness to figure out what was going on. At any other time, he probably could've convinced himself it was debris hitting the ship but this… these noises were literally above them- hell, even all around them at this point.

A vent cover in the quarantine room clattered to the floor, catching the other three off-guard before they seemingly ignored the sudden drop; choosing to focus more on the winding light that was going on around them.

The cover wasn't the only thing that fell though…

He stepped back slightly as he watched some kind of… something drop down into the room shortly after; masking itself in the shadows. When it stood up, it was human sized but it had some weird, extra appendages sticking out from its shoulders; deformed, arm-like limbs jutted upwards before they curved forward, adding more height to its stature.

"There's something in the room with you!" he was almost certain they both yelled it at the same time, hoping someone would hear it over the siren.

The creature was quick as it lunged over the scattered chairs and made its way towards the other three; its extra limbs swinging heavily overhead.

The lighting kept going in and out, it reminded him of some kind of old horror film. They could only seem glimpses of the fight and every now and then they caught whatever was being yelled through his COM. He heard someone scream as the thing swung its limbs downward and watched as one of them was briefly thrown against the still locked door.

And then the gunshots started.

"Get the doors unlocked!"

"Give me five seconds-"

It looked like a fuse was blown out before the lights returned for a brief second, just long enough for the doors to run a blue hue again.

"Get out of there! Just run!"

They didn't need to be told twice and immediately made a run for the recently unlocked door close behind them. He could still hear them yelling over the COM, their voices and words incoherent but… at least it was something. The next corridor was a mess of failing lights and faint smoke from where something else had blown loose, spelling out danger in the narrow hallway. He didn't know where it lead to but at this point it didn't really matter. As long as it got them away from whatever that thing was.

But that was just wishful thinking.

They barely made it around the turn of the corridor before he heard the vent cover being violently kicked from the wall. He didn't want to look behind him, he was almost certain it was best if they didn't… but part of him felt like he still needed to know.

The quarantine siren was still playing overhead but an almost human-like shriek easily screamed over it. The sound sent a cold chill down his spine and only pushed him to move faster away from it. Around the corner was a slight downward ramp and then another turn to the right, which they both slid around as quickly as they could. Another vent cover was torn free and he felt the corner of it clip his shoulder but refused to let it deter him.

At the end of the corridor in an almost heavenly-looking room, was an elevator. In any other situation, he would've been reluctant to use one for fear of it failing but right now, it brought them a means of escaping these things.

"Do not look back, do not look back." Duo repeated through gritted teeth as he forced himself down the corridor at the fastest speed he could muster. It was tempting to see what the hell these things were but he knew when to just let curiosity die. Pushing himself through the open doorframe, he smashed the elevator keypad and watched as it spun briefly in waiting. "Nonono, do not do this!"

It was the longest three seconds of waiting before the doors pulled open.

He hit the operator controls on the inside almost before they were in through the door and immediately pushed himself to the far corner of the elevator. His breathing was quick and irregular, it felt like he was suffocating while still breathing. Relief came in the form of the doors pulling closed though and he tried to take it as it was.

"What…" the braided man tried to form. "Happened?"

He shook his head and moved to cover his mouth for a moment. "I… I don't know…"

"What the hell are those things-" Duo started feeling the elevator begin to shift now before some kind of bladed arm stuck its way through the door; forcing it open just enough for them to get a glimpse of the creature on the other side. The thing swung wildly in an attempt to get him and before he could even figure out what was going on, he felt one of its arms swing across his face. The force alone was enough to snap his head into one direction and the shock added in with the sudden flash of pain left him almost disoriented with what happened.

Fingers fumbled for the gun at his side before he withdrew it just as the thing was wrenching its way through the door.

The first shot clipped off its shoulder.

The second landed in the socket of its right eye, blowing out a spew of blood and tissue and forcing the creature to retract back enough for the doors to close; snapping its left arm off in the process.

The elevator jerked before it began to descend, leaving behind those shrieks and screams from above.

His heart was pounding so heavily in his chest, he couldn't hear anything else over it. Every bit of him was shaking and the sweat on his palms made the weapon in his hands feel heavier. He managed to put it back to his side without dropping it and moved to shakily rest his hand on the shoulder next to him- suddenly needing to know that he was still there.

"Are you okay?" Quatre questioned.

"Considering the situation, no, not really." the American huffed before he touched his fingertips to the left portion of his face; feeling where his own skin had been peeled aside in that one strike. He could feel the warmth of blood running down his face and bleeding into his mouth; his fingertips were red when he pulled them back. "I swear to God, no one better call me Scarface for this."

He didn't want to admit he didn't understand the reference given and only gave a brief nod. "The medical bay can't be too far from here. I'm sure we'll find something to patch up that wound."

"Jesus Christ, look at that thing." he grimaced as he knelt down briefly to the severed appendage in front of him. From a distance, it looked like an arm but… from the elbow, some other kind of bone had emerged and curved slightly into what could've been a blade; the remaining portion of the forearm hung limply from the elbow. There was what might've once been flesh on it but now looked as though it had been skinned and turned inside out. "What the hell are we dealing with?"

"I wish we knew. Right now we need to figure out how to regroup with the others."

"Shit, they were locked in that room with one of these things." Duo muttered before he pushed himself back to his feet. "I'm sure they're fine… They're probably better off than we are right now."

Yeah, they probably were.

The elevator came to a shuddering halt and he felt his heart rate pick back up at the prospect of what might be on the other side of those doors now. From where they stood, it was quiet but that didn't mean a damn thing.

"_Heart rate: elevated: 160 bpm."_

They both stood there for a moment before they glanced at one another.

"Is this suit going to announce everything?" Duo questioned. "I can see why it's still considered a prototype."

The doors shook briefly before they pulled open in front of them, revealing yet another dimly lit room. The silence continued, but judging from the blood on the floor once more… something had been down here at one point. From what he could see, right in front of him was a door leading out, but to their left was a small platform area. He could see a white board with something written on it, but from this angle and distance, he couldn't depict what it was.

Pushing himself out of the elevator corner, he inched himself further and reluctantly stepped into the room. There was a vent to his left and he made sure to make a mental note of it.

Keeping one hand on his gun, he quietly made his way towards the platform area with the other man following in tow. The trio of stairs leading up to the area creaked underneath his weight and he paused briefly at the top of them; eyes fixated on the sight before them.

A dead body.

It only seemed to bring the situation full circle now. Sure, they had encountered the blood before and… ran into whatever demon spawns those creatures were, but actually seeing a body was a completely different story.

He heard the man next to him suck in a sharp bit of air.

"Holy fuck." Duo whispered; his eyes looking over the widening gashes and near mutilation of the body before them. The pool of blood underneath it still looked fresh and he couldn't help but notice that there was still color to the skin. "It's recent too."

He didn't want to be the one to say it, but… yeah. No signs of rigor mortis, color was still remaining in the skin pigment, the eyes hadn't sunken into the skull and the fingers looked like they were still in mid-curl from whatever they had previously been holding.

Best guess, he'd say within the last hour or so.

"Look at this." he glanced back to the other man and watched as he took a few gradual steps forward, making sure to keep as much distance between him and the body as he could. The small counter space below the whiteboard was covered in empty bottles and loose papers torn out of an old notebook nearby. But there was something else as well. Fingers moved to run across the weapon that had been abandoned on the countertop before he gingerly picked it up; feeling the faint sense of weight in his hands. Dark eyes glanced up at the bloody message scrawled across the whiteboard. "'Cut off their limbs.' What the hell is that supposed to mean? Is it for those creatures?"

"I can't see what else it would be for." Quatre started, edging himself closer before he looked to the new weapon that was offered towards him. He recognized the design and insignia almost immediately. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised they have a Plasma Cutter onboard."

"Is that what this is?" Duo questioned as he turned the weapon around his hand. "A weapon's a weapon but… what exactly does this one do?"

"It's used mostly in mining operations; it can cut through almost any type of rock without damaging the minerals. You have to be careful with it though, it shoots ionized plasma and it can get really messy if you don't handle it properly."

"... I didn't think you knew anything about mining equipment."

"I don't. Dorothy shot at me with one by accident once and after that, I kind of felt the need to look into it further." he answered. "It'd be in our best interest to follow this advice though, in which case I think that gun just might come in handy."

"Yeah, but if this advice didn't help him…"

The man didn't finish his sentence and for that, he was glad.


	3. Chapter 3

Leaving the platform area behind them, they made their way back through the larger room and started towards the only other door there was. The power box next to it was malfunctioning and kept the door on lockdown, but a quick bullet through the casing helped to solve that issue.

Yet another corridor appeared with even more silence and blood.

They slowly moved to navigate the tight corners, keeping their shoulders together just in case something wanted to come racing out towards them. Thankfully nothing appeared to do just that. The last corner yielded a door and the rotating sign above it flashed 'Tram Control Room.' It seemed like something they would want. If the tram system was offline, this would have to be the place to fix that issue.

Opening the door gave them a hallway to follow with the path to their left obstructed by debris, leaving them with only the path to their right. Walking down the short ramp to the lower half of the corridor, Quatre paused briefly at some kind of tape or node that had been tossed into the far corner.

"What is this?" he questioned as he knelt down and picked up the electronical piece.

"What is everything at this point?" Duo scoffed more so to himself before he glanced to see what the blonde had found. "Looks like an audio log if I'd ever seen one… Seems kind of weird to have one here of all places. I mean, I understand it's a huge ship but I figured you could just pick up the phone and call someone if you needed to tell them something."

"Not if the communication is cut." Quatre reminded, pressing in the sides of the device to activate it. "Or if you're wanting to leave behind a message."

"_Everybody listen up, they can use the vents; that's how they're getting around the ship. Stay away- look out! Get back!"_

The rest of the audio left off with screaming before it was cut short.

"I am so glad we listened to that."

The words were sarcastic and scoffed once more before the braided man turned to head towards yet another door at the end of this corridor as well. Shaking his head, he left the device where it was and moved to follow the man as he forced the door open. The room on the other side was, for the most part, seemingly untouched for the moment. The far wall in front of them was segmented into different consoles it would seem while a large window gave a rather bleak display of what was on the other side. A few odd looking machines were pushed to the wall on their left and pretty much ended whatever sights the room might've given them.

It was the large terminal in the corner directly in front of them that caught his attention though.

The large projector screen read 'Tram Databoard' and had a small hatch below that looked to be the place to put one if they had one in the first place. If this was the tram control station then they could easily get the tram system back online… Although he wasn't really sure where the trams were in the first place…

The soft beeping of the COMs interrupted the sheer silence of the room and he was pretty certain they both jumped at the noise. Hoping for the best, Quatre tapped onto the device and watched as the projector screen was activated. He had actually forgotten that the screen was a recent add to the device and was being worked out as a prototype as of now… hopefully it would work.

The screen blurred for a moment before it finally stabilized itself, revealing Heero for now, although both Wufei and Trowa could be seen idly in the background.

"I'm surprised you two made it."

"Oh ha ha." Duo mocked as he stepped around the room for a moment before he took a glance out the window, immediately noticing the three figures on the far platform. He ushered Quatre to move over before he gave a brief wave to the others. "Looks like you guys are all in one piece, is everyone okay?"

"Barton got hit in the face and Chang got stabbed through the arm."

"Way to go, Wufei, you're just setting up the standard for the rest of us."

"Maxwell, I will wrap that braid around your goddamn neck-"

"I think we've got more important matters to discuss here." Quatre interrupted. "Mainly like what exactly are those creatures that we ran into?"

"I can't say what exactly they are, but… it's pretty clear at this point that they are members of the U.S.G. Libra. Or at least used to be." Trowa started. "We ran into a few more trying to get here and one of them was wearing a medical bay uniform. The bodies look like they've got through rapid decay or mutilation of some kind. The evidence would point to a parasite but I've never seen one that resulted in this badly of a transformation. I don't believe this infection is airborne though, we past a few bodies who remained seemingly untouched by this mutilation- not to mention, we would've been dead at this point. However, whatever's causing it is enough to get the ship to notice. Half of the doors are locked due to quarantine, which is not helping our case. Our best bet in avoiding those is to get the tram back online, but systems are saying there's a problem."

"You know, for a ship that was renowned as being the top of its class… it's not really showing it." Duo remarked as he idly paced a short distance to his left. "What's the problem? Do we know?"

"The data board is fried." Wufei answered. "There's a spare somewhere nearby, can't exactly pinpoint the location but it shouldn't be too hard to find. And seeing how we're pinned down for now, it looks like it's up to you two- unfortunately."

The braided man rolled his eyes before he gave a brief nod. "Alright, alright, we'll handle the hard work, you guys just chill out for the time being."

"Keep your COMs open for the time being. We'll call you if we figure anything else out."

And just like that, the conversation was over and they were moving onward, stepping through the only other door tucked into the far corner of the room- which only lead out into another corridor that was met with two dead ends.

"Jesus, this whole place is like one freakin' maze." Duo retorted as he moved to open the door diagonal from them. "I remember looking at the blue prints for this thing but… damn, it's a hellva lot bigger on the inside."

It didn't help that there were creatures running through the vents around them either.

On the other side of the door was another audio log and while the American seemed reluctant to listen to it, he did so regardless.

"_This is Benson, Tram Engineering. We think we figured it out. Smith killed one! Listen, forget about shooting them in the body! You gotta cut off the limbs. Grab a cutter, anything like that. Cut 'em apart!"_

"Well… at least he was enthusiastic about it." Duo remarked as he tossed the device aside afterwards. "Cut off their limbs." he seemed to repeat the bloodied message they had seen before just for reiteration; if it was a common theme now, then it must've worked to an extent.

"You have to remember that they were stuck here when this whole place got overrun… I'm sure you'd be excited if you found out the way to kill them easily." Quatre replied.

They continued down the long ramp and exited the corridor through a door on their right, which ended up leading them out to where, he could only presume, the trams would be. It felt almost like a fortress as they stepped out into the lower carriage of the tram station; the railings looked like they were miles above them. Metal panels to their right blocked their access and they had to go towards their left to where, hopefully, another exit would be.

The large, open space made him feel vulnerable and he stumbled slightly as a rumbling… growl or roar of some sort echoed through the air around them. There wasn't anything close by that he could see and while the roar sounded off in the distance, it sounded far too large to be on a ship like this. It took them both a few seconds before they forced themselves to continue moving; eyes a little more attentive now as they kept a look out for any sort of movement.

As they drew closer towards another blockade, he picked up on a consistent crashing sound that got louder the closer they drew near. The answer to such laid in the malfunctioning door nearby that repeatedly slammed into its metal frame.

"They can't even get the doors right." Duo spoke before he moved to draw as close to the door as he could without harming himself. Carefully manipulative a few settings on his device, he eased himself a little more forward before he managed to time his next action almost perfectly. He brushed the side of his hand against part of the frame right as the door slammed into it and watched as it seemed to freeze immediately; a few seconds passed before it slowly began to draw open, opening at a much reduced speed.

Lady Ann had programmed half of their suits with a stasis module- which she insisted would help with the overall value of the suit- while the other half were installed with a Kinesis module. And while Duo thought the Kinesis seemed like a much cooler option, she paired him with a stasis one instead- seemingly out of spite.

When the door had pulled open enough for them to squeeze through, they made their way up the next ramp and around the next corner. There were two corridors to their left and right as well as the bathroom areas in front of them.

He didn't even want to imagine what they looked like. The images of severed heads and body parts stuffed into the sinks kept filling the back of his mind.

Moving towards their left, they spotted a sign reading 'Tram Repair Room.'

At least the rooms had labels on them.

"Tram repair? Wait, what are we looking for again?"

"We're trying to find the databoard." Quatre spoke as they stepped into the next room and paused briefly at the large mechanic equipment running. To their left was what appeared to be the mangled remains of a previous tram… he didn't know what on Earth could've caused such damage, but didn't want to question it for now. In the center of a room was a pair of what could best be described as robotic arms, which he assumed would be able to pull the wreckage away. Unfortunately, from what he could tell, one of arms was damaged, judging from the occasional spark that escaped around it. "… And looks like we'll have to clean up this mess as well."

"Jesus, what did they do? Decide to go on a joyride?" Duo whistled briefly before he made his way towards the first terminal by the bottom of the ramp. The screen was lit with a green hue and flashed 'Activate' across it. Shrugging to himself, he moved and tapped on the screen; watching as the arm closest to him reached forward and snagged onto a portion of the wrecked tram. "Well this should be easy for once. All we gotta do is activate the other terminal and we'll be good to go."

"That's under the impression that it still works." Quatre reminded before he made his way up the ramp, pausing briefly as he passed by another terminal. The screen gave a brief outline of the scene before him, boxing out the portion that was the tram and then showing where the arms would attach; the arm on the right was highlighted in red. If it was still functional, even for a small moment, they could still put it to good use. "Hey, take control of this terminal while I see if the other arm is still working. We may be able to get enough use out of it before it breaks down."

"Alright, don't do anything that might fry the system though; this place is falling apart enough as it is." the American responded.

He nodded and made his way to the other side of the walkway. The third terminal flashed a warning about the damages but still kept it's 'Activate' button highlighted. Tapping the screen, he watched as the arm sort of lurched forward and sparked before it slowly pushed forward; wires crackling along the way. Its robotic fingers opened and latched onto a portion of the wreckage just the same.

With careful timing, Duo managed to activate the main terminal and secured both arms before commanding them to remove the wreckage. There were a few ear-splitting shrieks as the metal pieces grinded against one another as the ruined tram was pulled free from the tracks. It seemed to be carrying on evenly before the damaged robot jerked and eventually broke free, snapping back into its console. The sudden action somewhat threw the remaining tram and Quatre barely stepped away in time as it smashed into the railing in front of him. It didn't have enough momentum to break the steel raining but it was enough force to bend them like straws beneath its weight.

"… Whoops." Duo offered with a brief wince.

He gave a shake of his head and mentally sighed in relief before he slowly moved back around the wreckage. "Alright well… that's one thing down, now back to that data board-"

Off in the distance, the shrieks and screams of more of those creatures could be heard as the vents began to bang around once more.

"We're getting out of here."

They were barely out that door before the first vent was knocked loose.

They wasted no time in running back down the hallway, retracing their steps back to the malfunctioning door, which they quickly stasised once more. The noises had receded off into the distance, which gave them some time to pause for a moment to catch their breath.

"We've barely been here for an hour and I'm already tired of this shit." Duo remarked as he moved to push aside his dark bangs; he had already broken into a sweat and the running combined with sheer fear made it difficult to breathe. "I get the feeling we're going to be here for awhile too…"

Quatre didn't want to admit it but… that was probably true. "Well, if we are going to be stuck here, then let's at least find a way to regroup with the others. I'd rather spend hours stuck in a group than being in here by myself."

"Good point." he nodded grimly before he eventually continued back towards the door at the other end of the tunnel. "Hell, I'll even deal with Chang if I have to."

The clattering of metal on the other side of the barricades from before caught their attention and they paused just long enough to watch something pull itself over the top of the panels. While neither of them could make out many details from this point, they pretty much already knew it was another one of those things.

With an impressive leap, one of those creatures cleared the barricade and came thrashing towards them once more; arms swinging overhead while its jaw snapped around its crackling shrieks.

This was their second encounter with one of those things and this time, there was no elevator door to snap off its limb. Pulling the gun at his side free, he tried to keep his aim located on one of the joints but with its consistent movement, it was difficult to aim; the first bullet missed while the second one struck its shoulder- the third one blew part of its elbow off though. It all seemed to do little to deter the creature though as it continued its full fledged run.

A sharp crackling to his left sounded off before he watched as two shots from the Plasma Cutter easily sliced off the remaining limbs- dropping the creature quickly.

Two more creatures crawled their way across the ground towards them, their lower body seemingly merged into one limb that flailed from side to side behind them. And while the monster gave a terrifying lunge towards them, it was much easier to shoot and dismember.

They both kept completely still even after the last shot was fired and the remaining creature gave a heart-piercing shriek before it collapsed. His heart felt like it was in his throat now, blocking his airway as he struggled to maintain a consistent breathing pattern.

Okay so not only were there strange creatures on board, creatures who were apparently former crew members as well... but there were different types of them. The new bodies that continued to convulse and twitch, were certainly of the same parasitic nature but had... reacted in a different way somehow? Legs had someone merged together into a sickly limb of flesh that could snap from one side to the next, almost acting like a rotor of some sort. The end of it was decorated with almost a blade or some kind, maybe a bone that had been crushed and chiseled someway.

There was really no logical way to figure out how these things... evolved from a human body. Sure there were specific, human traits that were still apparent, but for the most part... everything was mutilated and torn apart.

"… Well, at least we know the method works." Quatre started as he finally forced himself to lower his weapon.

Duo nodded and set his gun down just the same before he seemed to pause briefly; eventually he held the gun back up as though he was examining it now. "Dorothy really shot you with one of these?"

"Shot at me and it didn't hit or else I wouldn't be here right now." he corrected. "Plus it was an accident."

"I highly doubt anything that woman does is an accident."

* * *

"How's your arm doing?"

Wufei glanced up at the question and only turned back to the device on his arm when he noted it was just Trow asking- not that he would've thought it was anyone else. "It finally stopped bleeding."

"That's good."

He was not a fan of small talk.

"What are the damages?"

"Well, despite the wild swinging and uncontrollable spasms, the blade managed to pierce between the bones and avoided breaking anything." he replied as he briefly held up the injured arm; the forearm portion of his suit had a bloodied tear in it from where that… _thing_ had stabbed clean through it. With the quarantine light going off and the siren clotting most of their hearing, they barely managed to catch the thing approaching them. He just remembered turning around and seeing this thing rushing towards him and the next thing he knows, there's some kind of blade lodged in his forearm. "The damages aren't serious and there should be little repercussion when it's healed." he paused as he moved back to the program he was running on the device on his other arm. "How's your face?"

Trow offered what might've been a forced chuckle at the phrased question before he took the seat next to him. The empty tram station was odd and strange to just be sitting in, but the quarantine gave them little where else to go. And until the tram system came back online, they were stuck here. Fingers moved to brush against the wide split that cut from the back of his jaw line up to the corner of his left eye. He wasn't entirely sure how he got hit, he assumed it was some kind of backhand motion from the creature when he tried to assist Wufei. "Well… it's not getting worse, so that's something."

Wufei nodded and configured a small portion of his device before he watched as a new screen showed up.

"What is that?"

"I downloaded the blueprints of the U.S.G. Libra before we left the base; if this program configures correctly, it should be giving me a three-dimensional scale and map of this place." he started, readjusting a few more settings before he watched as the screen began to shift into a more accurate display. Seconds later, he was looking at the overall view of the ship. "And there we go… Not sure if this will provide much but at least we can figure out where the hell we are." he rotated the display by tapping it with his fingertips before he zoomed in on a portion of it. "We entered through the loading bay here and got quarantined in this sector." he started, highlighting each room with a tap. "Ran through these maintenance hallways and ended up here. If the other two get the tram up and working, it should be able to take us to the heart of this ship. From there, we should be able to crack this system open and figure out what's going on."

"What about the quarantines though?"

"If they're able to reboot the tram system, it should be enough of an operational override that it'll shut off the quarantines." Heero finally spoke as he stepped away from the edge of the tram platform; hands putting aside the tablet he had been paying attention to for the past few minutes. "Think you'll be able to crack this kind of mainframe?"

"I hacked into these devices with ease; I can't imagine that an illegal mining vessel is working on anything that advanced." Wufei retorted. "Even if it's illegal programs, they all have a notch that you can get into."

"What about Duo and Quatre? Where do you think they're at?"

Wufei sighed briefly at the question before he zoomed back out of the map and clicked the first room again. "If they were in this hallway at the time of the quarantine, they had to have escaped through here and gone down this path… ending up in this elevator." sliding his finger against the elevator, he watched as the display shifted to reveal the bottom floor. "They got dropped into this room, and worked their way to the tram controls. The only way they could've gone is down through the tram tunnels and towards the repair room- but knowing Maxwell, they could be anywhere."

"They need another data board though, where would they find one." Trowa questioned.

"Hard to say, best guess is the maintenance bay at this point."

A slight ding sounded off above the platform as the lights flickering back on.

The intercom crackled before a robotic voice spoke overheard. _"Wreckage located on the tram rails has been removed. Tram will be operational shortly."_

"Well at least they did something right." Wufei muttered.

Trowa moved to tap into his COM and he waited for the static to clear before he spoke. "Sounds like you two are getting there. Listen, there should be a replacement databoard card in the maintenance bay; I don't know how you two will get there but be careful."

"Alright, one more pit stop to go." Duo groaned before a loud crash in the background seemed to interrupt the transmission for a moment. "Oh shit! Not another one of those- JesusfuckingChrist, it can fly!"

The COM cut out shortly after, leaving them in a pit of tense silence.

"… I'm sure they're fine."


	4. Chapter 4

"_Tram systems are back online. Ship-wide tram system reinitialized. All trams are now operational. Tram arriving to the nearest station."_

Pushing himself to his feet, Trowa stepped away from the chairs and mildly approached the edge of the platform; hearing the grinding sounds of the tram off in the distance. He looked towards the control room directly across from them and could partly see movement inside.

"Hey, looks like you guys did it." he started, after tapping on COM unit.

"Please… do not speak to us right now." Duo replied, sound out of breath and partly rushed. "You will not believe the amount of shit we had to go through to get this stupid piece of… technology while you guys got to sit there and wait in safety."

There was a crackling noise as their connection was interrupted.

"You'll have to excuse him, he's… he's fine." Quatre spoke now. "What do we do now? I don't know where the tram can go from here or if there's a meeting point anywhere close by."

Trowa sighed briefly in response before he turned back to the black-haired man who had remained seated. "Any ideas?"

Wufei spun the display of the ship around for a few seconds before he seemed to locate an area. "It looks like our best bet, as of right now, is to get to the Bridge; we can access the main computers from there and start getting this ship under control. It's not going to be easy though seeing as more than half of this place is shot to hell. If regrouping is a priority, then since the quarantine is lifted, we can always backtrack to the flight lounge- but again, I think our main focus should be on the main computers. They have to contain information about whatever happened here."

"They'll also show us what the hell is wrong with this ship." Heero added. "I think our decision here is final. Barton, you and I will head back and regroup with Maxwell and Winner; Chang, you take that tram to the Bridge and get to the control room. From there, tell us everything that we need to do to get this ship operational again."

"Is that really the best plan of action right now?" Trowa questioned.

"It's better than nothing."

Something about it seemed off but it was better than having no plan at all. Trowa glanced up as the tram lights started to come into sight before he switched his attention back to his COM. "Alright, listen, Heero and I will be heading back your way, met us in the flight lounge and we'll figure out what we need to do from there."

"Will do."

Closing down his COM, he shook his head and watched as the tram came to a gradual stop in front of them; a small shriek coming from the rails above. The door released a brief hiss of air as it pulled open and waited for a passenger to step through. He moved back and watched as Wufei brushed past him to board. "If anything happens, you radio us."

He gave a simple wave before he stepped into the tram and set his destination into the terminal.

The doors hissed once more as it slid closed and with a slight jerk, the tram began to move forward.

"Come on, we got a hellva way to go if some of those things are in our way." Heero remarked before the two of the departed from the platform.

* * *

"I am far from being fine."

Quatre sighed briefly at the statement before he moved to rest his hand on the man's shoulder. "Let's just get back to the flight lounge and then… you can rage at them all you want. Right now, we just need to regroup before we run into any more of those things."

Duo twisted his expression slightly before he gave a sound of defeat. "Fine. Let's just get out of here already."

They had to retrace their steps back through the hallways, back through the room where they obtained the plasma cutter and… unfortunately take the elevator back up. The lights were flickering still and the hallway looked as though it was almost consumed with smoke from something they couldn't see. His skin tightened as they stepped back into the first corridor and steadily made their way into the flight lounge. So far, the place looked as though it had been cleared out but they didn't stick around to make sure.

And while Quatre preferred if they didn't just sit in the same room that had ignited a quarantine within the last hour, they didn't have any other choice. At least it gave them a moment to rest though. The maintenance bay had been filled with those things and everywhere they turned seemed to just have more of those creatures rushing towards them.

He had a fresh gash cutting across his left shoulder, splitting open the space starting from his collarbone. He was absolutely sore from being thrown into the steel railings and then having to twist himself out of the way to avoid those swinging blades once again; he was certain he was covered in bruises at this point. There were two more cuts across his right leg, one injuring his calf while the other cut just above his knee. It wasn't painful to move, but more annoying than anything else.

"Jesus Christ." he heard the braided man mutter once more as he moved to cup his hand over his face.

"You doing okay?"

"Oh yeah, considering the shit that we've gone through, I'm doing just fine!" Duo snapped.

Right.

It only took a minute or so before American gave into a defeated sigh. "I just keep thinking that Hilde almost joined the crew and I talked her out of it and she hated me for like weeks; I'm pretty sure she still does. At first I felt bad but now… look at this place. I just can't imagine what would've happened if she was on board when this happened."

She'd more than likely be one of those things right now.

"… But she's not. She's somewhere far away from here, somewhere safe." Quatre reminded. "Just think, if you hadn't been such an asshole about it, she would be here."

Duo gave a brief chuckle, breaking the slight tension in the room. "She was pissed as hell. I tell you, I better make it out of this alive so I can go back and tell her I told her so."

"You will- although she might not appreciate the motive."

The hiss of the door nearby opening pulled them from their conversation and had them both reaching for their weapons before they recognized the two figures on the other side.

"You two look like you had fun." Heero remarked.

"Don't even." Duo replied as he pulled his hands away from his weapons. "So, now what? Why isn't Chang with you?"

"He's taking the Tram to the Bridge to get to the control room." Trowa answered. "He'll figure out what we need to do from that angle… This ship seems like it's falling apart with the different systems failing."

"So you're telling me we're going to be the runners in this situation." Duo groaned. "Are you kidding me? Do you know what we had to go through just to get that damn data card? Can you even imagine what the more populated areas are going to be like? Not to mention they can go through the vents-"

"We are very well aware of that-" Heero interrupted.

"Do you know that you can only kill them by shooting their limbs off?" Duo questioned, interrupting Heero just the same.

There was a brief pocket of silence as both Heero and Trowa stared at him with questioning looks.

"We found an audio log and a message scrawled across a whiteboard advising the method." Quatre explained. "Surprisingly, it does work though, I'll give them credit there. Although it's just a little unnerving."

"And with all their uncoordinated movement, it's difficult to get a good shot in." Duo added before he pushed his fingers through his bangs and gave a quick sigh. "I cannot believe I'm having this kind of conversation right now."

A crackling noise radiated from all their COMs before Trowa moved to answer it.

"We've regrouped, have you reached the control room?"

"Yeah and let me tell you, you don't even know half the shit that's going on right now." Wufei replied.

"Can you hack the system or not?" Heero questioned.

"Yeah, which is sad to say for this multimillion dollar ship, but it could take me more than an hour to do it-"

"We don't have that kind of time."

"If you had let me fucking finish, you would realize that I have a solution for that." Wufei snapped. "There's an executive order on these systems, which are going to slow down the entire process; if you can get me the Captain's authorization code, I can break this ship wide open."

"Where can we find this code?" Trowa replied, taking the conversation back.

"You'll need to find the Captain, but here's where the good part comes in." he continued. "The Captain's been dead for a few days; they've got his body locked up in the medical lab. I can unlock the doors to get there but I can't guarantee anything past that."

"How the hell is that good?" Duo muttered to himself.

"Alright, sounds like we don't have much of a choice then." Trowa nodded. "We'll get the code and then you crack the command controls open."

"In the meantime, I'll break through these minor firewalls and see what I can find out. I should be able to get access to the ungrad systems and if that's the case, then I can hook up our COMs to it; it should help boost the signals in this place."

"But nothing's interrupting them right now." Trowa started.

"Doesn't mean something won't happen later on. I'll send the tram back to you and keep you posted on things from this point."

"Thanks."

Their COMs cut off with a brief hiss of static.

Letting out a brief exhale, Trowa turned back to the door behind them. "Back down this way then… for the third time. At least we cleared it and know where to go."

The corridors were silent as they followed Trowa and Heero back through the flashing lights and stepped into the cargo lift at the end. The ride felt tense and no one spoke… although there wasn't much conversation to be made at this point. Then again, they were all just trying to focus on the mission at hand- hoping it would bring them closer to getting out of this hellhole.

The cargo lift opened up directly to the tram station and they all looked up in time to see the vehicle roll in at the edge of the platform.

"Well, at least we've got transportation now." Duo started as he pulled himself into the tram, eyes giving the small interior a brief look over. "No more running through hallways for the time being. I could get used to that."

"Hopefully nothing can jump us in here either." Quatre remarked.

"You just had to put that thought into my head."

All it took was a quick tap on the terminal screen and the tram began to roll forward; the door sliding closed with a hiss. They all took a seat for the time being, although the motion felt weird compared to the insane running they had just finished going from flight lounge to maintenance bay. At least, for the time being, they could rest.

"You guys doing okay?" Trowa questioned, sitting on the far side of the tram.

"I have part of a Glasgow grin, how the hell do you think I'm doing?" Duo stiffly replied. "But for what it's worth, we've been doing fine. Maintenance Bay fucked us up a little but we got out of there without too much damage- almost got knocked over the railing though."

"Too bad you didn't, then we wouldn't have to listen to you complain."

"Shut it Heero."

This was going to be a long ride.

"What do you guys know about these things so far?" Trowa continued.

Quatre let out a brief sigh and leaned back against the leather seat, letting it support the curve of his neck. "Like we mentioned before, their main route of movement is through the vents, which is how they're able to access so many places in a short amount of time. The only way to kill them is by shooting their limbs off. Body shots appear to do no damage whatsoever and even a headshot doesn't effect them. Duo shot the head off of one and it just kept coming." he paused briefly and briefly touched at the gash across his shoulder. "From what we've seen, there are two different types of these things. The one that attacked you guys is one form and another one we've encountered is… a crawler of some sort but as soon as you get within its range, or if it's trying to get you first, it can propel itself into the air. Their tails are deadly but if you manage to shoot it off first, it's pretty much an one hit kill."

"Great, just what we need, two species of these things." Heero remarked under his breath.

The tram shrieked as it slowly came to a stop, giving a brief jerk before it finally arrived at the platform. They were on their feet before the door opened and stepped out just seconds later.

The platform was filled with body bags scattered over the place; blood already having soaked through the white material. Some of them looked to have been neatly wrapped up while others were made more so in a haste.

Not exactly how a medical bay was supposed to look.

They tried to pass by the bags without much trouble, hoping if they got out of there quickly enough then they wouldn't dwell on the reason or cause. There was only one hallway to go through and after having to wrestle around a few cargo crates, they managed to reach the door at the end. It only opened up to a room of… destruction to say the least. It looked like people had tried to barricade themselves in here, but it was obvious that it didn't work out.

It was difficult to imagine what that must've been like.

Trying to keep the doors from opening, trying to stack as many things in front of it to hold back those… monsters.

"Well, it's not going to be the easiest to get through but we may be able to pull it apart." Trowa started, overlooking the barricade that was blocking access to the one door they needed.

"Can't we just Kinesis this mess or throw something into it to break it up at least?" Duo questioned, briefly crossing his arms as he examined the mess. "I've only got a Stasis module though."

"Same." Trowa nodded.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try at least." Quatre remarked. "If the Kinesis can pull entire rigs of machinery, a few little boards shouldn't be that difficult."

The Kinesis module was installed for easy movement of heavier equipment- Ann wanted it tested after a few colony test yielded nothing special. She figured there would be something on the U.S.G. Libra that would need to be rearranged and pressed that if they could test it in Zero Gravity, that would be even better. He guessed she might be a bit disappointed to learn that he and Heero were just going to use it to rip boards and other miscellaneous items away from a door barricade.

But it all came down easily enough- the Kinesis almost overpowered compared to the simple objects.

A door leading to the Libra Clinic was revealed on the other side.

There was yet another destroyed lounge waiting for them, but this one, asides from the blood, was covered in what writings and gibberish. And while they should have just pressed through it... curiosity got the best of them.

"'Give them hope. Give them strength. They'll last a bit longer.'" Trowa recited, fingers touching briefly to one of the scribbled messages. "It's kind of foreboding to find something like this in the medical bay."

"'We are so fucked.'" Duo spoke from another wall. "Well... at least this one was honest."

The only other door lead out into the Emergency room, which would certainly hold no good news for them.

The first thing they saw were several gurneys that were blood soaked and disarranged; one of them held the scattered remains of what might've once been a body. A set of bloody X-rays next to it seemed to yield nothing for them. A quick overview of the room gave them nothing else but dead bodies and a door that was locked on the other side; the battery panel next to it was empty and flashed red.

For once, luck seemed to be on their side since a spare battery was sitting in the far corner of the room. And after some amount of carrying it and setting it back into its place, the door lock was released and they continued forward.

The corridor on the other side was just as foreboding as any other part of this ship had been. Blood mixed with medical reports was scattered across the floor. Empty beds reeked of death and one of them seemed to just be loaded with decaying organs that had half slid to the floor below. The sudden stench of it was nauseating and, for a moment, they all seemed to consider backing out. Old medical equipment remained damaged and unused, having been violently shoved aside and knocked to the floor.

Their footsteps were the only source of noise in the corridor as they gradually made their way forward; every now and again, one of them would pause for only a few seconds before continuing onward.

A vent cover went scattering and screaming across the floor before them as it was kicked from its place. Seconds later, another one of those monsters came racing around the corner; its jaw slack as a shriek pierced the air around them.

With the four of them now, the creature went down easily enough before several more came racing towards them. A higher-pitched shriek caught their attention and they watched as a… much smaller, almost child-like creature came running towards them. From their position, it looked just like a baby- with the exception of three elongated, tentacles of some sort emerging from its back. They focused fire on the larger enemies for now but the smaller one was able to shoot them with some sort of projectile that, when it actually hit, it hit with far more force than he was expecting.

One of the projectiles clipped the side of Quatre's knee and he felt his balance waiver slightly from blow.

Another struck Trowa right in the shoulder and the force alone made him drop his gun in reaction.

They couldn't aim for the limbs and be precise, but aiming for the weird tentacles bore the same results and Quatre grimaced as the creature gave a child-like shriek before it fell still.

"Please don't tell me this is what I think it is." Duo muttered as he forced himself to approach the bloodied corpse. He gave it a brief kick before he eventually knelt down just long enough to get a good look at it. Without hesitating, he jumped back to his feet and immediately backed away. "Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with this place?!"

"Should we bother asking?" Trowa questioned as he kept one hand pressed to his wounded shoulder.

"I think the sight speaks for itself." Heero replied.

Yeah it did.

Now was not the time to stop and think though… they were on a mission here.

They continued forward towards the Intensive Care Unit.

The room was filled with multiple tables isolated by a glass tube around each one; inside was a gurney and a random piece of medical equipment. Like every other room in the ship, each tube was filled with blood. The one closest to them held yet another deceased body, one that looked as though it had been rapidly decomposing. Despite the man's face being fairly untouched, the rest of his skin looked as though it had melted off. His ribcage protruded forward and one could count every single rib curving downward. Another body was crumpled to the floor below, this one had a saw of some sort still held in one hand… the deep cut across her throat told the entire story.

No one couldn't say that they blamed her though.

"They never had a chance, did they?" Quatre questioned, pausing briefly by one of the tubes.

"These kind of injuries happening as quickly as they appeared to… I highly doubt it." Trowa nodded. "They probably got so caught up in the wounded, unable to heal most of them, that they didn't even see this infection happening."

"Is that what you think this is?" Duo remarked as he worked his way towards the far corner of the room. The X-Rays on the wall held his attention for a moment before he shifted towards the anatomical figure that was resting on the table. The lungs and internal organs were color coded and could be removed for educational purposes. He removed them anyways.

"No, but there's no other word I could think to use."

"Good answer."

Moving to unlock the next door, they paused briefly at the ominous looking hallway before they continued forward. They only made it a few steps before a massive… roar of some sort echoed down towards them. The noise was loud enough to shatter the glass covering the different panels running down the corridor; throwing glass shards into the air and over the floor. The sudden noise combined with the destructive action had them all scrambling to move back and close the door once more; waiting until the noises ceased.

"What…"

"Don't finish that." Heero interrupted, only seeming mildly phased by the action. "Because we have no fucking clue what that was."

Seconds seemed to bleed into minutes before they slowly moved forward to continue. Opening the door once more, they stopped long enough to see if anything happened and when nothing did, they moved down the glass-covered corridor. Nothing else happened, nothing else roared or even moved, allowing them to reach the elevator at the end without a problem.

As it descended, Quatre felt the temperature shift slightly as it became colder- hinting that they were approaching the morgue now.

They all seemed to draw in a collective breath as the elevator doors opened and they pushed themselves forward into the corpse filled room. Despite more gurneys, most of the bodies looked to have been violently knocked aside; most of them were sprawled out across the bloodied floor in unnatural poses. They all shared the same decomposing look though…

"I'm assuming we're looking for that one." Duo started, pointing briefly to the uniformed body that was locked away in the examination room.

"We just need his codes and then we're through." Quatre nodded, more so to reassure himself. "We can probably break into that door, get in and get out without much difficulty."

As if to completely toss his words out, a panel in the examination room clattered downward before something else came down with it. It was a creature neither of them had yet to experience and from this angle, he swore he looked somewhat like a manta ray. It was mostly flat, it's skin much paler than the others and it certainly didn't resemble anything human. This one looked completely alien as it scurried about before it somehow took flight; spreading out what could best be described as wings. Fluttering only briefly, it landed right on top of the examination table, almost covering the Captain's body completely.

Within seconds, it pierced through the body's skull with some sort of… needle or antennae.

They were all either scared shitless of the scene or too scared yet intrigued to turn away.

The body itself began to convulse and twitch before the creature gave one final thrash and immediately flew away. The corpse collapsed but… it seemed within seconds, it was convulsing once more before it rose to its feet. Its shoulder having split apart to reveal those same bladed arms; its stomach was torn apart as a second set of limbs reached outward.

"Did that really just happen?" Duo started as he sucked in another hard breath.

"What the hell have we gotten ourselves in to?" Trowa muttered as he slowly drew up his gun.

It had to have only been a few minutes as the corpse went from dead to reanimated. With a powerful swing, it smashed its arms through the protective glass and charged towards them.

"Are you telling me that thing is what's causing all of this?!"

It sure as hell seemed to be that way.

"Shit." Quatre cursed, listening to the different clips that were going off around him. "We are in a morgue full of bodies and if that thing can change someone in that amount of time-"

"We're screwed." Duo finished.

"Maxwell, Winner, you take care of the Captain; Barton and I will take care of the other creature."

They both seemed to share a look of fear and hate over the decision but braced themselves as the Captain leaped clean over one of the gurneys and brought its arms down; attempting to slash at them with the motion. They barely stumbled back in time to avoid the strike and when they took position to start firing again, Quatre noticed it was different compared to the other ones they had seen. The Captain's skin was more black, as though it had been burned in some way, rather than a bloodied mess like the others. Its eyes somewhat glowed in the faint light and there was some sort of gas emitting from its open stomach.

A loud shriek escaped its decayed throat as it lunged forward once more; its blades just barely missing his arm once more. The other arm was drawn back and he was almost certain it was going to strike down the braided man in one hit. But Duo dropped his weapon just long enough to turn and activate his stasis module- striking the swinging creature with the temporary field that immediately slowed it down.

The sudden action was almost comical really as the creature was greatly reduced from its dangerous status to… something a bit easier to manage.

He didn't think he'd ever want to see limbs being blown off in slow motion though.

As soon as the stasis wore off, the body continued forward for a foot or so before it immediately seemed to convulse and dropped to the floor without a sound.

"In my defense… I panicked and I didn't think it'd actually work." Duo replied breathlessly.

"Well at least we know now. It might come in handy later." Quatre started before he moved to kneel down beside the body. "Now then, where are those codes we need?" as much as he didn't want to be near the body, he forced himself to look through what remained of the uniform before he managed to pull loose a small card off of the back of the rig. "Alright… well, at least we have them now. I'll go ahead and scan these to Wufei. Hopefully these will be the only codes he needs."

Readjusting some of the settings on his device once more, he was able to access a scanning projector and held the rig card in front of it just long enough for the scan to complete. He reset the coordinates on the scanner and watched as the screen flashed blue when it was complete.

His COM flashed yellow only seconds later.

"Good to see one of you is competent enough to work with."

"Everyone's fine, thanks for asking." Quatre replied. "Is there anything else you need for the system?"

"Not as of yet. These codes will let me crack the system open and once there, we'll be able to see what kind of hell this ship went through. I'm hoping to find some documents that might explain this hellhole. Head back to the tram, I should have everything finished by that point."

"Will do." Quatre nodded before he shut the COM down. Sighing, he pushed himself to his feet and watched as the other two made their way back; judging from the freshly splattered blood on the other wall… the battle seemed quick and easy. "Wufei says he'll have everything open by the time we get back to the tram."

"I would hope so." Heero remarked. "We may have found out something interesting about our ugly friend back there."

"We were right that it's possibly the one creating all these creatures, but we noticed that it was skipping the bodies that were missing part of their limbs." Trowa explained. "There were three bodies in one corner, two of which were missing a leg; it skipped over them and immediately went to the one that was still intact. Now… maybe it was a fluke, but I highly doubt it. You said that several messages told you to cut off their limbs in order to kill them. So maybe they can only be created if the host still has all the limbs attached."

"Which means, if you come across a dead body that's still fully intact, you should dismember at least one limb for good measure." Heero finished.

"Okay, first off, that's disgraceful to the dead and that's defacing a body." Duo started. "Two things that I have problems with. Look, these people went through hell enough, do we really have to tear them apart even after they're dead?"

"Do you want to face more of those things? You want to risk letting an infector like that have free roam with whatever body it pleases?"

The questions seemed to silence the man for now before he gave a defeated sigh. "Whatever. I guess I'm going to hell anyways, might as well get a first class ticket."

Nothing else was said as they retraced their path through the medical bay once more- having to experience the blood and guts of the intensive unit and emergency room all over again. The smell seemed like it had gotten worse as well. It was silent again, mostly because they didn't hold up a conversation and more of those things failed to show up- which they were all glad for.

The tram station was almost like a beacon of comfort in some way; it offered them a minor escape from the horrors here.

"Wufei, you got the goods yet?" Duo questioned as soon as they stepped foot on the tram.

"I've got the executive lock down lifted and looking through some of the data logs right now." Wufei answered. "Whatever's going on on this ship, it came from one of the planets they were cracking open. It struck the colony first and somehow got onboard. Your hypothesis was wrong, Trowa, from the looks of this, this isn't an infection. It's some kind of alien life."


	5. Chapter 5

"Alien life?" Trowa repeated.

"Are you kidding me?" Duo scoffed. "I mean, I get it, it makes sense. We're in the middle of space on a ship that was created partly for an illegal operation that no one really complains about. Such ship just cracked open this new, unknown planet for minerals and… finds a life threatening, mutilating alien life form, that just loves running around in vents and we have to blow its limbs off. No, really, it does make sense but now I'm wondering why the hell we didn't think of this sooner."

"Because this isn't a movie."

"Don't get all upset just because an alien life form is destroying the ship though, because right now the engines are failing, our orbit is collapsing and oxygen levels are depleting rapidly. Within two hours, the U.S.G. Libra will enter the planet's atmosphere and more than likely burn up and crash into the planet below with all of its inhabitants dead if we don't do something." Wufei continued.

Again, a brief period of silence.

"Quick and to the point, what do we need to do?" Trowa questioned.

"I can drop two of you off at the Engineer deck to get the engines taken care of and the other two will have to stay in the medical bay."

"Why exactly?"

"Because the reason oxygen levels are depleting is because something is poisoning it; Hydroponics is going insane with damage reports. There's a chemistry lab in the medical bay that has components I need to create an counteractive poison against it. Unless, of course, you want to be dead in two hours."

"Fine, fine, point made." Duo huffed. "So, how are we going to split this?"

"You two go back to the medical bay; Barton and I will take care of the engines." Heero answered.

"Why do you- forget it, we're all getting screwed here, it doesn't matter. Come on, Quatre; let's go grocery shopping."

And just like that, they were stepping back off of the tram.

"Give me a few minutes and I'll be able to download a complete map to your devices; it'll help you from getting lost- because I know you will. Just as well, I can upload everyone's devices onto the ship's network so you can download each other's positions." Wufei started.

"Aw, you worried one of us is going to get into trouble?" Duo questioned.

"No, so I can tell you you're in the wrong room and you need to stop dicking around."

"Well fuck you too."

Quatre shook his head slightly at the interaction and watched as the tram pulled away; leaving just the two of them back on this platform. He got a cold chill at the realization that they were all going to be running around this ship now; they were all sharing the same probability of getting killed by one of those things. And there wouldn't be a damn thing anyone could do about it.

Their COMs flashed briefly and released a static buzz to announce something had been added.

Tapping on the device, he watched as a projector screen popped up to reveal a full, 3D hologram of the ship with different yellow points flashing on it. Considering two of the points were stationary while the other two were steadily moving across the hologram, he could only assume these were their different wave points.

"There we go. You're all set up for now." Wufei reported. "If there's a color change or the flashing becomes rapid, it means that one of you got yourself in trouble."

"Wait a minute, there are only four points visible." Quatre started.

"I'm not going to disclose my position for the time being."

"And if something happens to you?"

"He's probably sitting in the safest room on this godforsaken ship." Duo retorted, seemingly to himself as he glanced around the platform for the moment. "Now just tell us where we're supposed to go from here." **  
**

"Go back to the lobby and head into the Diagnostics Wing."

Easy enough.

Of course, trekking back through the body bag corridor wasn't exactly something he wanted to do again. The Diagnostics Wing was to their right once they entered the lobby again and it opened up to a near pitch black hallway. They both stood still in the only lit corner and tried to peer down as far as they could… not able to see as far as they would've liked however. With some reluctance, they pushed themselves forward with cautious steps.

A sharp spur of movement only a few feet from them pulled at the sense of fear and he swore they both fired off a bullet in reaction- not really aiming at anything in particular. An odd shriek of some sort echoed from in front of them before he heard whatever it was making its way towards them now. His eyes caught sight of the rushing movement and he fired off a few more rounds in the direction; listening to a reactive scream as one of the bullets hit.

When the creature finally drew closer, it was another one of those… baby-looking ones. In which case, as difficult as it was, a few prompt shots aimed for the tentacles emerging from its back downed it rather quickly. Another one awaited them around the corner- this one being more difficult as it leaped from one wall to the next until it tried to hang above them. They struck that one down as well before they hurried into the red-lit room at the end of the hallway. The lighting, even as dark red as it was, did offer some sense of sight and comfort.

The only door available was yet another Diagnostics room.

It was a widely expansive room, far larger than the others one they had been packed into. A Diagnostics chamber was still running as the same chute slowly shuttled back and forth on its rails; emitting a quiet, soft blue haze beneath it. He was surprised at how quiet it was, barely emitting a quiet hiss as it moved front to back on its tracks. But other than a locked door to their left, there wasn't much on this side for them to use. He had started to move towards the only connecting pathway to the other side of the room before he felt the other man grab him by the arm.

"Tell me you see that." Duo started as he pointed to something on the other side of the chamber.

"See what?" Quatre questioned as he tried to follow the man's direction.

"Right up against that wall there."

Again, he tried to figure out what the man was pointing to- and the chamber constantly cutting into his sight certainly didn't help. But… it didn't take him long to finally see it. And from this side, he didn't know what the hell he was looking at. It looked like, from this angle, a huge mess of… flesh or something constricted to the wall; there might've been a head somewhere in there, but he wasn't sure.

"Well… only one way to find out, right?" he replied.

"I hate those kinds of ultimatums." Duo sighed before he continued forward.

Again, they moved with caution and carefully stepped around the gliding chamber before they stopped once more to peer around the corner instead. At best guess, it looked like a human body had been stuck to the wall; although it didn't look human anymore- none of these creatures did. It was bloated and held a massive sac that hung down from its gut. It's skin had merged into this maybe fungus-looking mess on the wall, sealing and trapping it to that one place. Every now and again, some kind of twitch would force it to move before it went back to hanging completely still.

"Jesus fucking Christ." Duo muttered before he forced himself around the corner; trying to decide whether or not it would be worth putting a bullet into. But it seemed like as soon as he came around that corner, that thing immediately sprang to life.

The massive room echoed with this humanesque shriek as its chest tore open into four, thrashing tentacles.

They both froze at the painful, distorted screaming that erupted from the creature and could only watch as its stomach split open just long enough to spew out some sort of… sac or something. It continued to scream and thrash about as they stood there- completely frozen with fear. The expelled sac convulsed before it too split apart just long enough to reveal its own tentacle, which immediately attacked them with some kind of projectile. He barely pulled the other man out of the way in time to avoid the object and cringed as he watched it cave into the wall nearby.

"I'm fucking done with this shit."

The few bullets they squeezed off at it did very little damage- if anything, the bullets looked like they just bounced clean off of its body. At best though, the bullets could exterminate the twitching sacs instead, which immediately and disgustingly exploded upon death.

"Okay, so… we've got a few options here." Quatre started as they kept their backs against the nearest wall; keeping themselves out of that thing's sight, which seemed to calm it down for the time being. "We have to get over there, so we can either try to make a run for it or waste every bullet we have trying to take it down."

"I'm not getting near that thing with those tentacles flailing around." Duo started. "And not really partial to wasting my ammo. So, we're kind of stuck."

"We can't just stay here though… we have to get to Hydroponics."

The braided man gave an exasperated groan and shook his head before he seemed to suddenly dawn on something. After a few seconds of complete stillness, he pushed himself away from the wall and headed back towards the door leading back into the medical bay. He was about to question him but decided to just let him go for now… maybe he did have another idea.

When he returned, he was holding some kind of explosive tank in arms.

"I don't want to know where you got that, do I?" Quatre remarked before he felt the man push the relatively heavy tank into his hands. "Or… what you're planning on doing with it."

"Hey, there's a reason Ann doesn't let me handle the explosive weapons anymore." Duo replied. "So, here's the idea, you take this as close to that creature as you can and I'll shoot it- I was kidding, it was a joke!" he quickly corrected after the blonde nearly let the tank drop on to his foot. "Take this tank, kinesis the hell out of it and throw it at that _thing_. If we're lucky, the explosion will do enough damage to either incapacitate it or kill it."

Right… that sounded like a better idea.

"How are you certain it'll explode though?" he questioned.

"Because these tanks are sensitive to pressure and will combust easily to the right amount of force, which I know your kinesis module can achieve. Now kill that thing so we can go through before this poisonous gas or whatever kills us."

He nodded briefly and let the tank float in front of him as he activated the gravity field. "Let's hope this works… Try to keep an eye out for anymore of whatever it's shooting at us."

"I'll try but uh… try to shoot it fast just in case."

That was comforting.

Peeking around the corner of the wall, he held his breath before he forced himself around it; keeping the tank evenly spaced in front of him. The creature began to scream again in reaction and started to thrash around once more- making it more difficult to try and keep his aim. He tried to aim for the largest part of its form, figuring even if he missed where he was aiming, he could still hit it; the stomach seemed to be the best target. The few gunshots behind him tried to take out the sacs that sprang to life once more, but he still felt one of those projectiles barely miss his right leg.

Carefully, he reversed the pole of the field and watched as the tank immediately flew across the room.

It struck the creature dead on, erupting the center point of its stomach into a mess of spewing tissue and liquid. A brief cloud of fire engulfed it, which only heightened its distorted screaming that continued to climb different octaves until it felt like the room itself was going to combust from the noise. But as the thrashing began to still, the shrieks started to die down as well until the creature was almost silent.

And then he heard it.

At first, he thought it was just a play on the echoes around him, but… it didn't take long to convince him otherwise. Once the final shriek had died, a low, almost relieved sigh escaped the thing; a human sigh. He swore that's what it was, but the more he was confident on what he heard, the more he realized how the thought of such made his blood run cold.

Because unlike the other things, this one wasn't necessarily dead; it's host might've never died until now. It was contorted beyond repair, physically and mentally, but that didn't mean it was brain dead. Or maybe he was wrong… maybe none of the creatures here were really dead.

A hesitative hand touching at one shoulder finally snapped him from his thoughts.

"Told you it would work." Duo bragged.

Quatre forced a brief nod and moved to take his gun once more. "Well… I never outright questioned you."

"Maybe not, but at some point, you tried to figure out what the hell I was talking about." he replied before he moved into the newly bloodied section of the room and gave it a brief look over. "Alright, well two locked doors and a working cargo lift… I think we all know where this is going."

The lift took them to the second floor where they had to stasis the disabled moving walkway in order to progress further. A door labeled Zero-Gravity seemed somewhat promising at the end of the second corridor. A mutilated body resided on the other side but nothing else thankfully.

"Where now?" Quatre questioned into his COM when they were faced with two different doors.

"You'll need to get into the Research Lab to get those chemicals; we'll also need a DNA sample from one of those motherfuckers but seeing how this ship went down, I have a feeling there might be one stored in their records."

There was another lift awaiting them on the other side of the door, which they reluctantly took down a level. The wall panels below were broken and exposed hissing electrical wires, hinting that something came through here before and… wrecked the place. It didn't exactly do wonders for their sanity but they didn't have any other choice right now. They continued further and entered a second door at the end of the short wreckage that was also labeled as the research lab; the door opened to reveal yet another messed up room but… it seemed to be the one they needed at the moment.

An entire computer console was posed in front of them. He didn't really think of much else and started for that first. He only got a few steps in before something to his left caught his attention- it seemed to catch the attention of his friend just the same.

"Okay, shit, I thought that thing upstairs was the final line but this… all of this…" Duo started, gesturing blindly with his hand for a moment as he stared at the massive containment tubes that were fixated to the wall. A yellowish kind of liquid bubbled inside, preserving the body of one of those… things. Except, it wasn't just any of the normal ones, no this one… was some kind of bulked up, steroid-infested… something. Words failed him completely as he continued to stare at it, either unable to look away or too afraid to just in case it tried to escape.

"Let's just… get these chemicals and go." Quatre replied as he picked up the pace and reached the console. He went through a small maze of screens before a light dinging noise assured him that he had gained access to what they needed. The machine attached to the console hissed before a small circular portion of it spun open and slowly forced out an air locked capsule. The container was cold from its incubation. Getting the chemicals was easier than he thought… did someone before them try to dispel the gas first? Maybe they were the ones who mixed the chemicals and then… were never able to finish the job. "Alright, easier than I thought, but we have them. Now let's just get out of here."

"Hey, you don't have to tell me twice." Duo remarked as he started to back out of the room only to nearly run into the door itself. The door lock had quickly changed from blue to red and no matter how many times he hit it… it did nothing. "Did taking those chemicals activate this door lock?"

"No, that console would have no connection to the door whatsoever-"

He practically smashed the activation for his COM and barely waited for a response. "Chang, did you lock us in here?!"

"I'm busy dealing with something right now- I can't answer your stupid questions."

"Do not ignore-" he continued before another activation noise caught his attention. He felt his nerves still at the sound of fluid slowly being drained and couldn't immediately bring himself to look; he had a feeling he already knew what was happening.

The creature they had been wary of ever since they stepped foot into the room was now twitching as it began to emerge from its slumber; its head thrashing briefly before it seemed to snap towards them. A muffled scream escaped from its distorted throat before its long arms lifted and smashed clean through the glass in one motion.

"Fuck."

"Okay, hang on, why is the medical bay on lock down?" Wufei started.

"Get the doors opened before this fucking thing kills us!"

Kill was a rather tame word to use, because he was almost certain this thing was going to mutilate and rip them apart first before it killed them.

Keeping the chemical container in one hand, he fired off a few more bullets, which did a bit more damage but didn't seem to faze it still. A few lucky strikes from the Plasma Cutter blew off its left arm though- slightly twisting the tide of the battle in their favor for now.

Or not…

He watched as the ragged stump of its right shoulder spewed blood from the sudden amputation before a second limb tore free to replace the one that had been loss. The sight of it caught him off-guard and he stood there watching as it immediately picked up where it had left off. Massive arms swinging about as its powerful legs lunged it forward.

They both seemed to curse and immediately jumped out of the way to avoid taking a hit, letting the creature nearly smash into the door itself. Backing up against the other wall, he felt himself run into the console once more and realized just how little space they had to fight in.

They were hoping Wufei could get the door unlocked but whether he could or how long it would take was still up to question.

"Did that thing just-"

"Regenerate its arm? Yeah." Quatre interrupted.

"How the fuck are we supposed to kill it if we can't keep its limbs off?" Duo panicked.

"I don't know, maybe we can just avoid it until the door opens." he started, before realizing just how stupid the words sounded. "All we have to do is survive until then right? Maybe… shit…"

"Yeah, but I have a feeling this is one of those moments where it feels like it's going to take hours for us to even get anywhere; I mean, we have to wait on Wufei to get the goddamn door open again- do you know how long that's going to take?!"

Wait…

He watched as the creature snapped back towards them and snarled again; its shredded mandibles dripping with the fluid from the tank. "Hey, remember how you stasised the Captain in the morgue?"

"Dude, don't phrase it like that, it sounds really weird."

"Do it again."

The braided man looked as though he was about to question it, but the thundering approach from the creature told them otherwise. They tried to separate once more to avoid its attack but it had caught on the first time and immediately followed the other man. He winced as a well aimed strike caught the American clean across the back, hitting him with enough force that he was thrown forward and smashed into the other containment tube. There was a painful echo of his body hitting the glass before he bounced off and hit the floor.

His mind was going crazy as he tried to figure out what to do- he couldn't just stand aside and watch.

Kinesis'ing the closest thing to him, he threw a discarded chair at the creature and watched as it hit with enough force to nearly knock it over. There was a heightened shriek and it spun back towards him; eyes almost glaring. But before it could even get a few steps towards him, he watched as Duo managed to roll over just enough to smash the side of his wrist into the back of the creature's leg; activating his stasis module. The creature stilled immediately in mid-motion, looking almost awkward in its seemingly gravity-defying pose.

"Are you okay?" Quatre asked; watching as the other man pulled himself away first before he forced himself to his feet.

"I think it busted a rib." Duo winced. "Fuck it, Chang when the hell is that door opening?!"

As if on cue, the door flickered blue for a moment.

"Go, I can't keep it open for that long!"

They didn't have to be told twice as they made a break for the closest door and made a mad dash out into the corridor outside. They collided briefly as they both tried to make it around the corner before they slid into the next room. The door took them back to the Diagnostics room with the mess of a creature still stuck to the wall. They could hear that gurgled roar again as the stasis wore off- prompting them to continue running back around the diagnostics chamber and back towards the security station.

The sound of the door hissing closed behind them was as close to a relief as they could get as they nearly collapsed in the center of the wrecked security station.

_'Heart rate: elevated; 170 bpm'_

"I thought there wasn't going to be exercised involved with this." Duo spoke as he half collapsed against the nearest wall; his chest and lungs were sheering with pain and his legs ached from the constant running they've been doing. He was still pretty certain he busted a rib somehow.

"We also thought this was going to be a routine repair mission." Quatre reminded, letting himself take a seat in one of the slightly more stable chairs. He moved the back of his hand to wipe the sweat from his brow and pushed his damp bangs from his face. "So… what, they can regenerate limbs now? Or was it just that one?"

"Fuck if I knew; it seems like that one was special or like… experimented with, I don't know." Duo replied as he eventually collapsed into the chair next to him. He braced both of his hands against his face and felt the near uncomfortable contact between his sweaty skin and the smooth surface of the suit. "You know what… we should really fucking find a name for these things."

"We're busy either running from them or killing them and you want to name them?"

"Hey, I'm just saying, it would make it easier to warn the others about them. Like that fucker we just ran into, he could fucking regenerate his limbs, so let's call him the Regenerator; easiest title ever."

Despite the situation, he found the topic almost comical. Shaking fingers moved to tap on his COM and he waited for the static to clear before he spoke. "We made it if that's any consolation."

"Great, without you two, we wouldn't have anyone else to clear the oxygen filters in here." Wufei remarked. "Now that you've got the chemicals, we're going to need that DNA sample. Apparently, from the records I found, there's a sample we can use in the ICU- don't ask me what it's doing there."

"Aw shit, the ICU again?" Duo groaned. "Fine… hey, in those records of yours, does it label these things as anything other than an alien life form?"

The other man took a brief pause as if he was looking for an answer. "There are a few reports noting various names but… _Necromorphs_ seemed to stand out the most."

"Death. Changing. I guess that makes sense."


	6. Chapter 6

The tram bounced along the crooked track and left the both of them to silence with the occasional shriek of the wheels spinning emptily against the rails. He could only guess what the engineering deck would be like…

"Alright, so the first of many problems with the engine is that somehow the fuel tanks became disconnected and it's running on empty; you'll need to reconnect those. Second, the gravity centrifuge is offline, don't ask me how but a full system recovery is not going to get it back online- not in this condition at least." Wufei explained. "If you get the main engine reconnected, I should be able to get the centrifuge working again."

"Doesn't sound too difficult." Trowa replied. "This wouldn't be the first time that we've had to reconnect fuel tanks."

"Well have fun doing it with those things coming after you."

Point taken.

"Regardless, at least we're doing the recovery part of this expedition." Heero remarked, although the words seemed somewhat sarcastic in nature. He glanced up as the tram began to slow down, eventually shrieking itself to a full stop. Pushing himself to his feet, he had to wait for the door to open before he headed through and stepped out onto the awaiting platform. Nothing set it apart from the other platforms, it was the same desolate area with a few uncomfortable looking chairs. With a quick look over, he found the only door they had was to their left; the label of 'Control Room' seemed promising enough and would hopefully put them right where they needed to be. With a brief wave of his hand, he ushered the other man to follow.

The corridor on the other side was short and one turn to the right lead them straight into the control room itself. A door to the Elevator Centrifuge was placed directly to their left, while the Machine Shop was to their right. Lockers seemed scattered about but most of them were either locked or too damaged to open. The actual control panel resided directly in front of them, where the panels and holographic screens were still somewhat running. In one of the chairs was a dead body- which he guessed wasn't a new sight for this ship.

A short bit of static erupted behind him and he turned briefly to see what it was- watching as Trowa picked up an audio device from one of the control terminals; the brief hint of blue along the other edges said it had been activated.

_"Personal log. Active Chief of Engineer. It's been two days since they pulled that planet apart and since the Captain died. The panic, the riots, they were nothing compared to what came after. Our friends, our coworkers, started coming back… changed; coming back… to kill us, drag us away. Rucker disappeared this morning and I have to assume he's dead. My crew, they're… starting to crack. I'm trying to keep an eye on them, but right now I have bigger problems. We're hemorrhaging fuel and the primary engine is wavering. Dayvers and I are gonna try and reach the fuel depot to see if we can fix it."_

"Being chased by those creatures is one thing, but then having the ship fall apart at the same time…" Trowa remarked as he set the audio device aside. "They couldn't stand a chance even if they had one."

"That just says that these problems have been going on long before we got here, which means we don't have that much time to fix them." Heero replied before he backed out of the control room area and started back towards the Machine Room. "From what I could decipher from the map, if we go through this corridor, it should take us to where we need to be."

The Machine Room consisted of metal grate walkways surrounded by smoking bits of machinery that whirred quietly as they moved by. The first walkway lead a twisted path downward that took them to a blood-splattered supply room for the time being. Exposed wires to their right crackled wildly from time to time, jolting upwards with a sudden sense of electric life before they cooled back down. His eyes landed on the fallen, unmoving form of one of those things collapsed in the far corner of the room… and something about it didn't seem right.

"Want to make a bet?" he offered, one hand slowly releasing the gun from his side.

"I'm not much of a gambler." Trowa started.

"I thought you and Catherine used to make bets all the time."

"Catherine's competitive. Most of those bets weren't made with both parties fully involved."

Pulling back the trigger, he sank a bullet right into the gut of the collapsed creature and- just as he predicted- the body jolted before it sprang up to its feet; filling the air with its horrific shriek. He fired a few more bullets, managing to blow off part of its right arm before it even got close to them and finished the job when it was just a few feet away. The body convulsed and twitched across the floor before it finally fell still; its blood spewing out across the already stained grates below.

"Aim for the limbs… seemed kind of absurd when I heard it the first time, but I guess if it works." Trowa remarked.

A strange strategy indeed, but they didn't have a lot of room to complain about it right now.

The next room greeted them with quite a sight to say the least. Three bodies were strung up by their necks from the ceiling; their skin pale and rigid but death couldn't have claimed them all that long ago. Their uniforms were mostly intact though… he would've guessed they hadn't made contact with that alien life just yet. It didn't seem good enough for them though. He didn't really blame them. The ship was going to hell faster than they could imagine, all hell breaking loose all around them… the decision seemed easy enough. Asides from the bodies though, there didn't seem to be much else the room had to offer.

He turned to go elsewhere but stopped when his foot brushed against something on the floor. Yet another audio device. Stooping down to pick it up, he figured there might've been something useful on it.

The message started off with what could best be described as strained screaming and something being struck in the background.

_"What in hell is going on here?! Ambers?" _

_"It's Henderson… he's crazy. He's pulling his own teeth out!"_

_"Ambers- for God's sake!"_

What could be described as a physical strike and then a body hitting the floor was recorded.

_"Oh God! Is he dead?"_

_"Relax. He's alive… but he hit that door pretty hard."_

_"Why would he do something like that?! I don't get it!" _

"Hell breaks loose, the ship starts falling apart, those who had survived until then have to battle former coworkers and… cases of dementia." Trowa spoke, more so to himself it would seem.

Heero didn't reply and instead headed towards the only other door the room had partly hidden behind some storage crates. The corridor on the other side was narrow and the constant presence of machinery around only made it seem smaller somehow. A partly mutilated corpse was sprawled underneath a blood-splattered poster that spoke about the importance of teamwork. Taking the turn to the right, they headed towards another walkway piece that hung over the engine before following the twisted path of the grate. The place reeked of oil, smoke, blood and claustrophobia.

Working their way further into the machinery, he paused briefly at the faint echo of something moving around them… hurried footsteps in the vents above them.

Seconds later, the vent above them broke loose and another one of the creatures fell down with it. A part of a shriek escaped it before he fired a bullet into its throat, interrupting its voice for now. Combined shots blasted off pieces of its arms and forced the creature to stumble back just enough before it toppled itself over the nearby railing. If the situation wasn't as grave as dictated, the sight would've been humorous. But they didn't have time to stop and laugh; there was more important business to attend to.

The walkway eventually lead them to a transport platform… unfortunately the gondola they needed to use was stuck halfway across the rails.

"How convenient." Heero muttered.

"You could kinesis it, you know." Trowa offered.

Right.

With a bit of careful maneuvering and a steady pace, he managed to bring the gondola back to its proper platform.

"On the platform above you is a switch you need to activate first."

He paused slightly at the words before he glanced up to the platform just a few feet above them to their left; he was able to catch the faint hint of a glowing screen.

"How'd you know that?" Trowa questioned.

"Because I need that switch to be activated and I knew the two of you wouldn't bother to investigate it first." Wufei remarked. "The engineering deck is a full maze down there, you have to keep your eyes open."

Trowa nodded before he moved back through the room next to them and headed up the nearby ramp to reach the platform. "How's Duo and Quatre holding up?"

"They're blowing something up on their side and I'm not really curious enough to find out." Wufei answered. "I'm trying to search through these files right now and see what I can get out of them… they're not offering a lot right now."

"Well a good explanation for how this whole mess started would be a great starting point."

Reaching the top of the platform, he headed towards the massive switch and gradually pulled it down until a successful click was heard.

_"Initiating sequence, activated."_

Easy enough.

Heading back down the ramp, he started for the lift but paused briefly at the sight of yet another mutilated body already occupying a corner of the gondola.

"Hope you don't mind the extra company." Heero remarked.

"That's messed up."

Activating the terminal nearby, the gondola jerked slightly until it began to roll forward; taking them in even deeper into this mechanic hell. An eerie kind of smoke had long since settled in this deck and soon enough, it was difficult to see the tracks above them; leaving them blindly suspended. The situation left him only slightly shaky with the gondola's ability to keep moving- every now and again, it jerked about and left them holding on to the railing.

In the distance, he heard those shrieks again.

The smoke began to clear as they started to reach the receiving platform and revealed the very source of the noises. Two of those slashing creatures seemed to be waiting for their arrival. Jaws slacked with every shriek while disjointed arms swung about disoriented. He heard Heero curse before they both moved to take aim and fire at the awaiting creatures. With every shot echoing around them, the noise only seemed to attract more of those things as they poured out of the nearby open vent.

When the gondola finally locked onto the platform, there were only two of those things left. They were somewhat easy to dispose of, although one of the creatures managed to make it onto the lift itself before they blasted off its remaining arm.

They didn't wait around to see what else might be hanging around and immediately went to following the next walkway available. The lighting was shot for the most part, leaving them to walk from one pool of light to the next with the hope something might not jump out at them. Walking into a rather larger area, he paused slightly at yet another audio device sitting nearby. Part of him didn't want to know how it would conclude but… if it was someone from this deck, then they might have information they needed.

In the end, he picked it up anyways.

_"Never should have let him live. Never should have let him live."_

_"Shut it Ambers. Shut. It. Engineering log. Someone has shut off the fuel lines to the primary engine and damaged the valves in the process. They need to be repaired before I can reopen them but we're running out of time. With the engine offline, orbit decay will begin in less than ten hours. I just can't understand who would do this. If it's one of those crazy Unitologist bastards, I'll break their neck."_

_"Captain, they're coming! We never should have let them live!"_

_"Shut up Ambers! Help me with the tools." _

"Someone did this deliberately then?" Trowa questioned.

"Seems to be the case." Heero nodded as he started up the nearby ramp and headed on to the next set of walkways for them to follow. "Seems like whenever shit hits the fan, there's always that one guy who has to make it worse for everyone."

"Do you think they were trying to do it to keep this alien life from spreading?" he continued as he quickly followed after the man.

"I highly doubt crashing a ship into a planet's orbit will stop an alien life form, but… maybe they thought it would."

The walkway ended with another platform that held the second switch that they needed.

_"Refueling sequence activated. Sufficient fuel to primary engine." _

It didn't take long before their COMs buzzed once more.

"That gave us a quarter of a tank but it'll be enough to restore the orbit once you bring the engines online." Wufei started. "I'll update your maps with your next target as soon as I can."

"What exactly are you doing that's so important?" Heero questioned.

"Asides from having to bounce between you two and the other two, I'm having to chase down… a rat in the system."

"What do you mean?" Trowa pressed.

"There's someone else in here, someone who is really fucking with my controls right now and when I find the little bastard… I'm going to quarantine his ass." Wufei replied. "He's screwing with the door locks and I can't tell you how many times he's fucked with Duo and Quatre right now; he's probably going to get them killed before I can catch him."

"Probably the same guy who shut off the engine." Heero spoke. "You catch this asshole. We can't afford to lose anyone over something stupid right now."

"Oh don't worry, I'm on it."

The conversation ended in a spot of static.

He drew in a partly deep breath and glanced to the shorter man. "Think this is serious?"

"Possibly." Heero replied. "Let's just focus on the engines for now."

They backtracked to the gondola and quickly boarded it when they heard more of those things rumbling through the vents again. The ride back was filled with more of those echoed shrieks, but the further they traveled forward, the more distant the noises became. For now, it was somewhat comforting but he knew there would only be more of them ahead.

Arriving back onto the original platform, he tapped into his map and spun the holographic ship around until he could locate where they were now. Wufei had downloaded everyone's positions onto the map and from what he could tell, Duo and Quatre seemed to be alright still; their points weren't flashing and their colors remained the same. So far so good on that.

From what he could tell, they were supposed to head up the ramp he had taken to the first switch but this time, they were to turn left and move on from there.

But just as he had predicted, two of those creatures broke loose from the vent in front of them and charged forward. He blew off a leg on one and finished it off with three more bullets while Heero seemed to down the other one more easily. These things were never going to cut them a break. He moved to continue forward but stopped when Heero pulled him back. Before he could question why, the brief sense of movement ahead of him seemed to answer for him.

Small pieces of what looked to be discarded flesh were rolling across the floor, pulling themselves closer to them as though they had a mind of their own. And it wasn't just a few handful, it was a small swarm of these fleshy bits moving in unison. They were too small to justify the use of a bullet and yet… he wasn't exactly confident enough to step on them.

Maybe he waited too long for a response on the matter, but he watched as Heero activated his Kinesis module and lifted one of the bodies they had just put down before he tossed it into the swarm; scattering the flesh pieces with ease. It scattered them enough to clear a path, which they quickly stepped through and headed up the nearest ramp. The door at the top lead them back into the control room where they paused long enough to watch as another one of those infector things began to metamorphosis another body.

He didn't know why they just stood there and watched… maybe since they both knew it was too late to stop the process and there was no sense in rushing it.

When they did move in, he went after the retreating infector while Heero went for the newly revived body. He had to rush back down the corridor to catch up with it before he managed to land a few shots into the soft flesh of its wings; reloading his gun halfway through before he continued to pump shot after shot into its back. The creature shrieked and flapped about wildly to avoid the shots, bouncing from the walls to the ceiling before it eventually fell to the floor once again. Two more shots blew off what might've been its head before it finally fell still.

They were persistent, he had to give them that.

Walking back into the control room, he watched as Heero finally subdued the newly resurrected creature with a final blast into its head. He was sporting a new cut down his right arm but otherwise seemed fine.

"When they're infected by that thing, it seems like the bodies are different from the normal ones." Heero started, briefly examining the body he just downed. "The main thing is that the skin is more black, like it's burned somehow. They're also stronger and faster… more resilient to bullets."

"Just what we need."

"You're telling me."

Their map pointed them in the direction of the Elevator Centrifuge and when they stepped into the lift, it was automatically set to go to the floor below. While he didn't think getting into an elevator was the best course of action right now when the ship was in this kind of state, they didn't really have any other choice. They had to go this way. The elevator jerked a few times and once he was almost certain something had landed on top of the lift but… nothing else happened.

The doors opened to a larger room surrounding what was some kind of chamber. A quick examination of the place gave them nowhere else to go but inside. A terminal inside identified it as the decontamination chamber and quickly stated that they wouldn't be able to get to the Centrifuge until the sequence had finished. With little else to argue on, he started the activation sequence. As soon as he touched the screen, the lights shut off before they came back on in a flashing, orange frequency.

_"Decontamination sequence activated. Please stand by."_

"Shit." Trowa cursed, watching as iron gates closed down over the windows before the room began to fill with some kind of smoke. Instinctively, he backed himself against the nearest wall and made sure to keep his gun tightly gripped; listening to the sounds of the vents being knocked off just outside of this room. It didn't take long before two more of those things began to bang against the guarded windows. "Well… can't say I was expecting much."

"Is this really anything new?" Heero remarked.

He watched as the terminal screen flashed a few times before it became distorted and eventually shut down; taking the bright, flashing lights with it and stilling the entire process. But it was the silence that really got to him… the banging had ceased and the two creatures had disappeared from sight. Had they found a way inside somewhere?

As though to answer him, the vent cover directly in front of him broke open and one of the creatures pulled itself into the room. He mostly just heard it and spotted the occasional jolt of movement in the dark before he fired on what he hoped was it. A resulting shriek confirmed such- but it would be difficult to figure out where its limbs were in the dark and blindly shooting would get him nowhere. Not to mention, the clattering of a second vent meant that another one of those things was in here.

He pulled the trigger two more times just to make sure he knew where the thing was- but only one of the bullets hit.

There was a shriek and the thundering of footsteps before he caught the sharp sense of movement heading right for him. He fired one more bullet before he felt the sheer force of the thing ramming into him instead- smashing him into the wall. It hit hard enough to leave him breathless for a moment before he felt the sharpness of one of its blades cut into his left shoulder, digging a few inches down into the flesh. The pain was quick and hot before he managed to shove part of his arm underneath its jaw to snap its gaping mouth away. He managed to fit his gun against its left shoulder and fired as many bullets as it would take before its arm fell apart and fell to the floor. The creature shrieked and continued to blindly slash at him with its remaining arm, repeatedly stabbing his already wounded shoulder. He could twist his arm to fit the gun against the remaining shoulder and as best as he tried to shove the creature away, it seemed futile. It drew its arm back and when it swung again, he swore it almost managed to slit his throat. He grabbed the creature by the arm when it twisted with the swing and managed to plant several bullets into the soft tissue, but it wrangle itself free before he could finish the job. Its arm snapped back around and he felt the blade cut harshly across his face again; barely managing to miss his right eye with the hit.

The swing also managed to knock the gun from his hand, leaving it to clatter to the ground below.

His mind was racing to figure out what to do. His vision barely blurred from the close hit and the remaining darkness around them. He had seconds to figure out what to do before this thing finished the struggle for him. Shoving his right arm underneath its jaw once more, he did the only thing he could think of and grabbed at its partly dislocated shoulder with his other hand. Twisting the struggling limb in his grip, he heard the bone cracking in its socket, already damaged from the bullets, before he heard that final pop. Its skin and muscle was already decaying, leaving behind stringing pieces to hold it all together; making it that much easier for him to continue twisting the limb until the tendons snapped and the muscles threaded apart. The skin stretched briefly before it snapped just as well, leaving him with the dismembered arm in hand. The creature continued to shriek and snapped at him with its seemingly dislocated jaw before he finally managed to kick it aside. With a quick retrieval, he snatched his gun from where it had been dropped, after several moments of searching, before he turned the barrel back on the creature; planting that final bullet into its head. It toppled back in a satisfying sight and he quickly released the breath he had been holding in his chest.

This was not going their way at all.

He looked up in time to see Heero finally put down the one that attacked him as well, smashing its head against the terminal until its skull finally broke apart in his hand.

"You alright?" Trowa called.

"… I'm still alive." Heero replied. "Let's just get out of this room."

_"Decontamination sequence complete."_

"Damn right it is."

The door on the other side of the room read 'Proceed' above it, but they didn't have to be told twice to do so. He kept one hand pressed against the newest injury as they stepped out into the more well lit room outside, and he relied on his other eye to make sure there wasn't any more danger. The hit didn't feel deep but… it was bleeding more than the other one had.

He barely noticed his COM going off.

"Your points were flashing there for a moment, you two still alive?"

"Yeah, we just… got into a bad situation there." Trowa replied. "We're… fine now."

"If you say so."

Sighing, he shut his COM off and moved to the next door, watching as it opened to reveal a somewhat decent-looking corridor on the other side. They moved forward without another word and only paused when the second turn in the hallway revealed a destroyed wall unit with a massive hole in it. At any other time, he was pretty certain they wouldn't care but… the wall was broken outwards which meant something had to have broken from the inside out. Whatever had done so, he didn't want to know.

Blood smears followed down the corridor all the way to another, similar wrecked wall unit… this one was splattered with blood; severed limbs were scattered about and he guessed if one peeked in far enough, they could probably find the rest of the body.

"Any theories?" Trowa asked, pausing just long enough to note the given damages.

"Don't really want to think about it right now." Heero answered as he continued onward.

A large, circular door met them at the end of the corridor and it hissed slightly when they opened it. There was a small walkway that curved around and lead them to a matching, circular door, which they opened just the same.

_"Entering Zero Gravity."_

"Goddamnit."


	7. Chapter 7

The clinic was still the same as they had left it before, just a bit more eerily quiet and the lights looked as though they had lost some power; they were dimmer now which had enlarged the shadows in the area. The place could still send cold shivers down his spine… it was just the thought of how many people came here looking for help and how many of them died, trapped in this place with those things. Those Necromorphs.

They barely walked into the medical bay lobby before freezing as a low, rumbling shriek faintly echoed from elsewhere. One of many problems with this ship was that anything could be heard from anywhere and they had no idea of how to find its origin. At least, judging from the quick cut off, they could assume it was still off in the distance for now. There was no telling how long it was going to be there though.

"Please tell me that thing's not coming back for round two." Duo muttered as he briefly tightened his grip on the Plasma Cutter.

Stepping into the Emergency room again, they both started for the door on the far side of the gurney-filled room. They were barely even close to it before the door lock flashed for a brief moment before it simply turned red once again. Was it another trap? Before they could even curse at the repeated scenario which seemed to only be following them around, two of the vents to their left broke open; it didn't take long before those same, slashing creatures began to pull themselves out of the open duct. Quatre had to admit it had been awhile since they last ran into those... slashers, but he hadn't missed their presence at all.

Before they could even squeeze off a few shots, a piece of the ceiling unit behind them collapsed downward.

And in dropped The Regenerator itself- or at least, as they had accurately nicknamed it.

For a moment, and he was certain it wasn't going to be the last time, they were caught between two enemy forces with limited time to figure out what to do.

"I'll try to keep this fucker preoccupied, you get the other two!" Duo called.

Well, it was something.

Quatre nodded briefly before he moved to fire off a few rounds at the Slashers that continued to rush them- hell, they had named the Regenerator, why stop there? He managed to blast off an arm on one and then a leg off the one behind it. The hollow click of his gun echoing back towards him caused a brief sense of panic as he fumbled slightly to eject the empty clip. He hadn't even been counting his shots when he should have! Running through a slur of curse words in his head, he grabbed a spare clip from his belt and hastily snapped it back in- lucky he didn't jam the weapon in his haste. He had enough time to put a bullet through the eye socket of one of the creatures before it reached him- causing it to recoil back from the shots. At close range, he was able to blow off its remaining arm from the shoulder and placed one more bullet through its damaged skull. Its blood was almost cold when it splattered across his suit, but he had little time to focus on that matter right now. The second creature that was pulling itself on its arms towards him proved to be faster even with one leg remaining and slashed at him when it could. He stepped back with every swing before he dodged the last one and managed to catch its head underneath his boot; he kept it pinned down just long enough to blow its arms from its shoulders.

If he had known this was going to be what all of his training equaled out to… he probably would've dropped out of the academy.

There was barely time to catch his breath before another set of vents were knocked loose, allowing more of those Slashers to flood into the room. Their bladed arms smashed aside the ruined gurneys as they rushed towards him.

He felt one blade cut clean across the back of his right arm as he tried to twist out of its swing; the serrated bone tore through his skin and left behind a jagged gash that immediately began to spill out to the floor below.

With more of those creatures came the waste of more bullets and another clip burned out as he tried to keep consistent with his aim; taking them down one by one when he could or simply blasting off a leg to keep a clear view across the room. He didn't know where Duo went or if he was having any better luck- more than likely not though, especially not with the Regenerator.

A brief clicking noise somehow managed to echo over the shrieks and screams in the room though and he quickly glanced away from his targets to figure out what it was. Sure enough, the door lock flickered before it began to flash blue once more.

He didn't know how long it was going to be unlocked though. They had a limited shot with this one.

Doing what he could to clear a path to the door, he eventually kinesis'd one of the gurneys and shot it back into the crowd in front of him; watching as it successfully knocked several of the creatures down. He hesitated though, unsure of where Duo was and not willing to leave him behind- although such was no longer the case as he watched the same man he was looking for suddenly dart free from another gathered crowd of Necromorphs and slide through the open door. He didn't hesitate to follow after him and was relieved to hear the shrieking become silenced by the door closing behind him.

His heart felt like it was breaking his ribs in an attempt to get free as he tried to put some space between him and the door. He didn't know how long it was going to last or if it was even going to last… The thumping echo of the vents signaled that the creatures had resorted back into them and were scurrying off to wherever they damned well pleased to go.

"Chang, tell me why the hell these door locks are fucking with us again?!" Duo questioned as he nervously paced for a step or two before he slumped against the wall once more. "And why do they do it at the worst moments?"

The other line didn't immediately respond.

"Apparently… there's someone else getting into this system." Wufei started. "And this person must be pretty determined to kill you."

"Well I guess that makes two people now." Duo huffed. "Fuck this."

"You still need to get to the ICU."

"Fuck you too." he remarked lowly with a shake of his head before he shut his COM down. Fingers fumbled with his weapon for a moment or two before he gave into a heavy sigh and forced himself to his feet again. That room right then and there put them way too close to those fucking things; it put them closer into unnecessary danger- although at this point, there was no way of avoiding it. "Right… the DNA sample thing."

Quatre touched briefly at the gash over the back of his arm, wincing at what shredded pieces he could see. He would've liked to convince himself it wasn't that bad, but he could feel the skin pulled away with the touch. It could've been worse though, he had to keep telling himself that. "Well, the sooner we get that sample… I don't know, I guess we get to explore another infected part of this ship."

"I can't wait." the American replied with a slight roll of his eyes as he started onward before he stopped himself. Shaking his head head, he walked back over to the blonde-haired man and placed his hand on his shoulder. " Hey uh… sorry about kind of leaving you back there. I just saw the door unlock and didn't think about anything else."

"You were fighting that Regenerator thing, I don't blame you for wanting to get out of there." Quatre assured. "Besides, I was only a few steps behind you, you didn't really leave me behind per say."

"Yeah well, it only hit me afterwards that you might've not noticed the door opening and you could've been stuck in there with those things."

He sighed and brushed his hand aside. "Duo, it's not worth second-guessing because it didn't happen. Now, let's get going before those things catch up to us or before the doors lock again- unless you want to wait around for that."

The braided man gave a look of discontent at the words. "I'd much rather break all of my fingers at every knuckle."

That's what he thought.

After everything they had gone through up to this point, they could feel the exhaustion starting to kick in, but had to force themselves to continue. They worked their way through the rest of the winding corridor that would lead them to the ICU and barely made it even close to ending door before that familiar, human-like scream echoed all around; carrying all too easily down the narrow passageway. Despite the four of them being in this very corridor just a little more than an hour ago at least… there was another one of those wall creatures there- right next to the door they needed.

"We're never going to get a fucking break." Duo cursed as he tried to peek around the first set of open doors to get a better look at the creature- nearly getting struck by a projectile in the process. "How could that thing possibly set itself up so quickly?!"

"I don't know, we were only in here maybe an hour ago at least- and there was no signs of anything like this." Quartre replied, watching as the creature continued to contort and scream before he glanced back behind him. There was no other way of getting into the ICU, so they had to clear up this mess now. "Look, you stay here, I'm going to backtrack and see if I can't find something to hit it with. I highly doubt we're going to find another one of those canisters, but it's worth looking."

"Well hey, they can sometimes be used to generate energy on short notice if they can be hooked up to the right equipment correctly; this is the medical bay, I'd imagine at one point or another they could benefit from it." Duo offered.

He hoped he was right.

On top of the shrieking from that wall creature, he could still hear the vents around him thundering as those things continued to tumble about. As hard as he tried to concentrate on one thing at a time… it was getting increasingly difficult with each room. He was exhausted, sore from the running and his injuries were throbbing still; minor amounts of blood loss weren't helping him either. Pushing past a few of the bloodied gurneys, he paused slightly as a bit of red caught his attention before he tried to kinesis it from where he stood. With some carefully shaking, he managed to pull a canister out from beneath a pile of ruined medical equipment. At first, it seemed like a stroke of good luck for their side... and then he noticed the small pile of canisters underneath the one had grabbed. If these could be used as an energy source on short notice and the medical bay was flooded with wounded personnel at one time... their equipment couldn't handle the injuries or the numbers. They tried though.

At the very least, the canister he had grabbed was at least halfway full, if not more, so hopefully it still had enough in it to generate the explosion they needed.

Walking back towards the ICU, he kept the canister balanced in a kinesis field and stepped through the doorway to fire as soon he had lined it up with the creature. Again, there was a brief explosion on impact, causing for liquid and tissue to spew from its chest as the creature thrashed about in agony. This one seemed to take longer before it eventually succumbed to the damages.

Again… there was that dying, human sigh.

But their path was free now, that's all that mattered.

The ICU still had the isolated gurneys with the bloodied remains of the previous patient still lingering inside. Nothing different for once… prompting him, for a moment, to be afraid that something had come through and it was hiding somewhere; waiting for them. While he wished to dispel the consideration of it, the fear could still be true he supposed.

Duo gave a brief sigh at the room once more- he didn't like it the first time and he still didn't this time. Tapping on his COM, he questioned. "Okay Wufei, where's this DNA sample supposed to be?"

"In the medical office, you can't miss it."

The office door was just around the corner and without hesitating, they pushed for it to open. Just standing from the doorway, the first thing his eyes went to were the glass jars that were lining the top shelf of a work desk directly across from them. A few of the jars had been knocked over and their contents emptied, while others held a clouded, dark liquid that filled the large jars to the brim. But it was the handful of the jars that contained severed heads stuffed inside that really brought focus to the rest of the room. The floor itself was covered in dried blood while some kind of chalk or something had been used to draw out symbols all over the place, covering the walls completely. Dirty rags hung from the ceiling as though in an attempt to mask the heads in some way while also creating an overhead circle above the floor.

He didn't even notice the chemical console that had been tucked against the right wall of the room.

Duo didn't say a thing and simply stepped back out of the doorway before he walked away.

He felt his stomach churn slightly and struggled not to puke- he didn't know why suddenly this was getting to him when just a few minutes ago he was shooting off mutilated limbs with no problem. Still… they had a task they needed to complete. Holding his breath, he forced himself into the office and moved directly to the console; it felt like the air itself became colder and thicker against his skin. Lifting the small lid on the center panel, he pulled the chemical container loose from his belt and eased it into the terminal. With a quiet grind as the terminal came to life, he listened as the machine began to mix the DNA sample into the capsule itself. He tried to keep his attention on the flashing DNA strains on the screen in front of him, but in the corner of his eye, he could still see those rotting heads.

None of them looked like the Necromorphs themselves- for the most part, they were intact and seemingly healthy. And yet, some of them did have skin peeling away, but he wasn't sure if that was because of the alien life form or the preserving chemical.

"What the fuck is wrong with this place?!" he could hear the braided man in the next room nearly yell. "It's like it was fucked up long before this shit even started!"

"I'd believe it." Quatre remarked before he watched as the console eventually pushed the capsule free; he pulled it loose and stepped out of the office without even looking back. There was dozens of questions that could've been asked about that room, but... he didn't want to bother with any of them. "Come on, we're done here. Let's just get out of this place as soon as we can."

There wasn't any arguing there and they both shared the same need to escape the ICU again.

They were a little more careful as they made their way back towards the emergency room- both of them bracing themselves for what was on the other side of the door. However, when it pulled open, it simply revealed an empty, mostly wrecked room, which they were both thankful for and didn't waste. Running back into the assumed safety of the security office, they took some time once more to catch their breath before he tapped into his COM.

"The compound's complete… now what?" Quatre questioned as he felt the capsule's weight in one hand.

"Get back to the chemistry lab-"

"Oh God no, tell me we're not." he interrupted.

"You don't really have a choice, do you?" Wufei replied.

Cursing, he shut the COM down before he nodded towards the braided man. "You're right… these kind of ultimatums do suck."

"See? I told you." Duo remarked before he ushered him to follow.

Again, they braced themselves before they headed back towards the Imaging Diagnostics wing, this time taking the new shortcut through the door they unlocked last time they went through- avoiding the cargo lift and second level overall. The room was eerily still now even with the other tube that remained intact with a half-mutilated body still shoved inside; the console was still online… so far nothing else was in there. Still, after the still fresh memory of what happened last time, they moved in with caution before he hastily returned the capsule into its original console; it only took a matter of seconds before the console gave an approving 'ding.'

"Alright, you need to get into hydroponics now." Wufei started. "You can cut through the door to your right and head back to the tram."

The second door lead out into a slanted corridor that lead them up to the Cryogenics lab; it didn't sound familiar and he wasn't sure if he wanted to know what was on the other side. There was no telling what the people onboard the U.S.G. Libra might've wanted to freeze out here; he just hoped there wasn't something lurking around in there in case the place defrosted. However, a line of lockers to their left were damaged and a few of them had their doors snapped off, revealing an interesting array of items inside.

"Hey, hey, look at this." Duo announced as he put his attention to the line of lockers to their left- most of which were damaged and had their doors snapped clean off; revealing an interesting array of items inside. He must've seen something interesting as he moved towards one of the lockers and managed to snag something through the damaged doors. And while he did have some difficulty pulling the item back out, he ended up victorious in that struggle. He ended up pulling out a larger weapon, which was held carefully in one hand as he turned it around to examine it. If anything stuck out to him, he didn't mention it and moved to hand it over. "Here, I don't know what it is but at least it's a second weapon."

It was definitely heavier than his handgun, but… adaptable; the extra weight was somewhat comforting at least. He moved it around to examine the different panels until he found the white letters that identified what it was. "IM-822 Handheld Ore Cutter Line Gun." he read. "I think I heard about this somewhere."

"Don't tell me Dorothy shot at you with one too."

He chose to ignore the comment for now. "It's technically mining equipment but… I guess at this point it doesn't really matter. As long as it can do damage somehow, it's useful."

"That's my philosophy on it." Duo nodded, before he moved to rummage through the locker once more. "There's some extra clips or brackets or whatever the hell the thing uses in here- might as well take them seeing as no one else is going to use them."

That was a point there.

After collecting a few more clips of supplies for the weapon, as well as the Plasma Cutter, they pushed forward into the Cryogenics Lab. The main focus of the room was the circular, cryogenics chamber in the center; it's glass hazy from the low temperatures still. To the left was the control room which was only accessible through two doors- one of which appeared to be locked for the time being.

"This is the perfect room to go through." Duo remarked with a hint of sarcasm behind his words. "How the hell is this a shortcut?"

"This whole ship is a maze, there's probably a door leading out of here behind the control station." Quatre replied. "Although I guess we could have checked our maps on that one."

"… True."

They made their way towards the control room and managed to make it halfway there before the vent closest to them broke open. Again, they seemingly froze at the sudden motion and watched as yet another Necromorph pulled itself free.

It wasn't one of those regular Necromorphs though.

"Does he never give up?!" Duo shouted, easily recognizing the Regenerator from its massive built as he pulled his Plasma Cutter free.

"I highly doubt it." Quatre remarked, noting they both seemed stuck on whether to run into the control room and risk getting pinned in the confined space or run back out into the rest of the Cryogenics lab. "It seems like someone's programmed him to follow us somehow and he's not going to stop until we're dead."

"Well then… that means we have to stop the motherfucker in his tracks before he can." Duo started. "I mean, we're in the cryogenics lab… why not play with the machinery?"

"Because neither of us know how to operate cryogenics machinery and it could be really dangerous." he reminded, although he couldn't necessarily argue the plan; the crygenics equipment could get them the boost they needed. "But… it would get him off our backs for awhile. We'd just have to find a way to lure him inside the chamber and get him to stay long enough for us to activate it."

And, possibly for one of the first times since they've gotten on the ship, the braided man grinned. "You get to the control panel and leave the rest to me. I'll lead the fucker into the chamber, stasis his ass, get out of there and then give you the signal to freeze him."

He couldn't argue with that plan… on such short notice, it was surprisingly good seeing the situation they were in. Giving a brief nod, he pulled back and started to step to the left of the chamber in hopes he could make a dash for the control room without getting caught. Duo took the first few shots at the creature, immediately drawing himself to the Regenerator's attention. Once the distraction had been made, he took off towards the control room just as the creature started to give chase, provoking Duo to run as well. Scaling up the ramp, he opened the door and immediately took to finding the control console- which wasn't that difficult to do; the control room itself was barren with the exception of a few shelves and a scanner. The console plainly read 'activate' on it, which threw his whole theory of this being difficult out the window.

And while he didn't like standing around and watching the fight from a distance, he knew this was the best way they could win against this thing. He watched as Duo raced around in an attempt to avoid its swings, taking it through the chamber several times only to lose his opportunity due to close proximity or lack of timing. By the third try though, he managed to nail it. Blasting off the Regenerator's legs with the Plasma Cutter, he used stasis on it in mid fall before he quickly darted free from the chamber- giving him a brief wave as a signal, although he already knew to activate the chamber at that point.

Pressing the activate button on the screen, he watched as the chamber immediately sealed up and let out a gush of cool air. He couldn't necessarily see all the details of the process from this distance, but it appeared that a large container slowly raised once the chamber had closed. The computer read off a few lines as the container sealed itself, with the Regenerator inside, and slowly descended; the computer announced that it would all be stored elsewhere on the ship.

At least that was one less thing to worry about now.

Sighing in some relief, Quatre moved to open the door just as Duo pulled himself up the ramp.

"Well… for being under pressure, not all that bad." he offered.

"Hey, for being stuck in a hellhole in the middle of space, we're not doing too shabby." Duo replied as he gave the control room a brief look over before he gestured towards the door labeled 'Tram Station' to his right. "If only every occasion could end off this easily, right?"

Eager to leave the entire medical bay behind them, they stepped through the doorway and followed the elongated corridor that eventually opened up to a separate tram platform. Even though the vehicle would just be escorting them off to yet another dangerous environment, the quiet tram could still bring some comfort… at least they couldn't get attacked in here- for now anyways. Stepping onboard, he moved to take the closest seat available and felt the sheer ache of his body come together when he sat down.

"You know… if we make it to the end of this… I'm demanding a raise." Duo remarked with a weak chuckle as he collapsed in one of the seats and braced his head in his hands once more. "And better medical insurance. And I think I'm going to get a better apartment with my raise."

He chuckled briefly at his words and felt the slight jerk of the tram as it pushed forward, bringing a minor ache to his bones. "I think I might just take up smoking again."

"I didn't know you smoked before." the braided man replied with his own, short chuckle as he leaned back in his seat now; hands moving to knit over the back of his neck.

"Well, it wasn't exactly something I was proud of, but after that international mission we did two years ago, that was kind of the breaking point." Quatre spoke with a brief shrug. "I mean, I quit a few months later, but... who knew there were actually things worse than a ship breaking down, a hotel catching on fire and a minor hostage situation in the embassy building. If only I had known, right?"

"Tell me about it."


	8. Chapter 8

They reconnected power to the Centrifuge by reattaching the generator modules manually… all while trying to dodge the leaping creatures in zero-G. It wasn't easy to begin with, but then with having to switch between Stasis and Kinesis modules, it didn't make it any easier. And then they had to dodge the Centrifuge as it was spinning around the room still with those creatures… and none of those had been in their job description.

He wasn't one to complain, but when he almost got smashed by the Centrifuge- saved for Heero pulling him out of the way at the last moment- he felt it gave him a good reason to do so.

Stepping back through the circular doors, he waited for the air decompression to finish before he gave into a heavy sigh; the back of his hand moving across his brow. This entire situation felt endless. "Alright… the Centrifuge should be working at full power now, right? What do we have left?"

"Head back to the engines for now." Wufei replied. "You've got the fuel reconnected and the gravity centrifuge back, we just need those engines functioning alongside. Quatre and Duo are getting the DNA sample to get the air cleaned up in here; they shouldn't be too long- areyoufuckingkiddingme-"

The COM cut out afterwards.

"It'll blow over." Heero remarked.

"... Right."

They salvaged some downtime to recover and tried to rest every aching inch that they could. He was certain they were bruised black from colliding with debris in zero-G, colliding with those creatures and each other a few times; and trying to run in the recovered vacuum after the Centrifuge was fixed didn't help their condition. His shoulder was still throbbing; the bleeding had stopped before, but had been consistently started again several times during the ordeal. His suit seemed to insist on reading out each percentage of blood loss, which wasn't comforting in the least bit. The gash across his face wasn't helping him either. But, he didn't have anything life threatening for now… as long as he could still run and shoot, he'd be okay.

Now… back to the engines.

Stepping back through the second doorway, they both stilled as the sound of metal being ripped apart echoed down the corridor towards them… A few seconds later, they had their answer as something came flying around the corner. It arched high and some grotesque, mutated limb split apart in three seconds before it came swooping down. He took a half step back before he watched as the thing wrapped itself around Heero's leg instead. At first, the scene felt like it was moving in slow motion… and then it all snapped together into real time. Within seconds, it pulled his leg out from underneath him and immediately smashed the shorter man into the nearest wall before it began dragging him down the corridor.

Heero had disappeared around the corner before he so much had a chance to act.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Running after both the tentacle thing and Heero, Trowa heard a few gunshots go off before he made it around the corner to where the two had momentarily ceased. The tentacle was a fleshy, corroded looking piece with some kind of swollen, yellowish sac infecting a portion of it. His aim felt shaky as he fired a few bullets into the fleshy hide, only to see it didn't seem to phase the thing the least bit. But when Heero planted a few hits into the sac, the tentacle immediately began to convulse and shake- throwing the man into yet another wall in the process. Readjusting his own aim, Trowa fired off a few rounds into the grotesque sac, causing the tentacle to convulse further before it smashed the man into a third wall and continued into the larger corridor they had been in before.

And suddenly those two holes jutting out of the wall space with the severed limbs around them didn't seem so out of place anymore.

It just felt more threatening now.

Keeping pace, he bounced a few shots off the hide before he landed even more into the sac again.

This time, the sac erupted into a mess of fluid that hissed as it came into contact with the walls and floor, leaving behind burn marks against the panels. The first half of the tentacle immediately dropped to the floor, withering and shaking, while the rest of it retreated back into one of the walls; breaking off more of the metal sheets. He kept his gun trained on the damaged wall, fully expecting it to come back, while Heero had to wrestle his leg free from its dying grasp.

_ "Right clavicle: fractured." _

Groaning briefly, Heero forced himself to his feet and listened to the collection of pops that his body gave with the action. A dull pain was radiating from the center of his neck across to his shoulder, confirming what his suit had just read out. "Nothing that I haven't deal with before." he remarked.

"Even with this alien life form?" Trowa replied, dropping his weapon once the thundering in the walls had ceased. "I'm starting to wonder if I even want to question these things anymore."

"You're guaranteed to almost never get an answer." he retorted before he started back onto their objective, pausing slightly when he walked past the widen stain where the tentacle had erupted. There was a burning sensation in the air and he had noticed the scent of it almost as soon as it had exploded. "Acid."

Trowa looked up at the single word before he looked back to where the affected panels had been burned, but were now clearly damaged. "… So on top of being able to mutate from human bodies, this alien life form somehow creates it's own acid? I don't see how that's going to push its life span further."

"I don't think it matters. I think it's more focused on ending ours instead."

At least the walk back to the Control room was easier this time around- and quieter too.

"Alright, I've got the Engine Chamber open now. You're going to have to jump out into space for a bit, so watch out for the debris flying around." Wufei warned. "You don't have a safety line and Ann couldn't get the clearing for thrusters to be added to these suits."

"Remember when we told her that these suits were a waste of Preventor's time?" Trowa remarked.

"I still think they are." he replied.

Opening the circular door from the control room, they stepped back into another small chamber filled with different warning signs about zero gravity and the impending vacuum. While he wasn't thrilled about either of those conditions, they didn't have a choice. At least their suits came fully equipped for space travel though, helmet and oxygen included.

Stepping out into space, he cringed at the damages around them. This area of the ship looked like it had been completely ripped off; the metal shredded and snapped off. A few grated platforms were at their disposal to leap to, although a few obstacles continued to float in their way, making each jump a bit dangerous. He tried not to pay attention to the few bodies that were floating around; their suits were still intact though, leaving him to wonder what happened to them. On second thought, it was best not to think about it.

After nearly getting hit by a moving piece of shrapnel, they managed to land successfully by the door they needed and immediately dove inside. On any other day, he usually enjoyed the vacuum of space, but not here… not when there was so much danger lurking around.

The engine chamber greeted them with the massive roaring of machinery; the sudden break from silence felt as though it made his ears bleed. It barely quieted down as they moved through it, forcing them to adapt to the constant grinding of the engine.

Pushing their way through the next doorway, he found himself stopping again as the corridor around them seemed to be… decaying almost. The metal panels had been contorted and taken over by some kind of fleshy substance. It pulsed and moved when they walked past it, giving it some form of life somehow. At first, it only covered a few feet, coming up every now and again, and then it consumed the corridor completely. Large, hanging portions of it strung across the ceiling and wrapped around the walls themselves… transforming the place. His boots stuck to it slightly with every step after he had been hesitant to touch it at all.

Walking into the larger room next, he was almost disgusted with how the entire place was covered in the stuff. It had to have been something to do with that alien life, but… this wasn't the usual infection; not unless this stuff was made from humans anyway… come to think of it, it wasn't all that far-fetched.

"What the…"

He glanced over at the faded words, noting that Heero seemed far more distracted by something else other than this plague. A low wail caught his attention and it sent a cold shiver down his spine. Just to the left, in one corner of the room, was what appeared to be half a torso immersed into the wall. There was still a head and arms, but the chest itself had been split down the middle to where the rest of the body had been raggedly torn away. What was left of the intestines hung down and pooled against the floor below. It was, by far, the most humanesque thing they had run into so far. If anything, it was still human and… still alive somehow.

He looked back to Heero and they both seemed to share a look that said they didn't want to know what it was. And yet, they couldn't just pass it by either.

The body hung still as they approached it, the mass of tissue covering the walkway helped to mask their footsteps- although he wasn't sure if the thing could hear them or not anyways. It was somewhat nestled in one of the darker corners of the room and when he activated the small flashlight on his device, he was startled to watch the thing lift its arms in an attempt to shield its face from the light- immediately prompting him to cut it off.

"It can still react." Heero started. "The other things don't care if they're in darkness or light, but that…"

"He's still alive, isn't he?" Trowa questioned.

"The human body can't sustained that amount of damage, but… a part of his mind is still functioning. I guess this stuff, whatever it is, is somehow keeping him alive." he nodded. "I don't think they go around and string up dead bodies though."

He didn't want to give it any more thought. Lifting his gun, he planted a bullet straight between the eyes and watched as its head snapped back briefly before fell forward. Nothing more, nothing less.

The room offered little else but a cargo lift on one wall and they reluctantly took it down. The lower level was even more consumed than the first; the corrupted mass had even damaged one of the doors, permanently locking them out of it. It was more active and pulsed more strongly, making him feel uneasy as they tried to hurry by all of it. Most of the rooms yielded nothing or were too heavily consumed for them to do anything with, leaving them to take yet another cargo lift down. The bottom floor looked to have been corrupted by a system of roots of some sort from the mass; large, twisted pieces of it broke through the floors and descended to an origin they couldn't see. They had to watch their steps around the mess or risk falling.

Another one of those hanging torsos was next to the destroyed elevator shaft and he spent another bullet putting it out of its misery.

The exit to the engine room they were looking for was the only intact door… and the only malfunctioning one as well. It snapped hard enough to form sparks as the doors jutted in and out of their frames; the edges of the steel doors were damaged and bent from the harsh collisions. With a quick bit of timing, Trowa managed to stasis it and watched as the doors now slowly pulled away from each other- giving them enough time and safety to pass through. The long corridor on the other side didn't seem promising, but they didn't have a choice. The machinery nearby was letting out consistent clouds of steam and smoke, damaging their field of vision even further.

They barely made it to the ramp at the end before two more of the slashing creatures came towards them. He managed to blast off a leg before he had to do another quick reload and blew off the remaining limbs. They hurried onward in hopes to avoid another wave of those things coming through and quickly made their way up another ramp and towards the Engine Control Access door.

As soon as the door opened, they were greeted with the sight of four more of those things seemingly milling around; one of them seemed preoccupied with dragging a dead body about. He had yet to witness such an act and was certain he could do without seeing it again.

But the engine terminal was just in sight.

They gunned down one of the creatures before it even noticed them, although the action immediately drew the attention of the others. He shot off the legs of one of the creatures charging them and watched as it dragged itself across the floor with its arms instead; giving him somewhat of an easier chance at blowing its arms off its shoulders. Once the four had been dispatched, they approached the terminal and immediately started up the engines.

_"Ignition sequence initiated." _

The console immediately went into a waiting screen… which meant they couldn't ignite the engines just yet.

The sound of more shrieks behind them meant it wasn't going to be an easy waiting period either.

"Higher ground." Heero remarked as he pushed him towards the ramp to their right just as more of those creatures began to pull themselves out of the vents in front of them; one of them even climbing over the back of the console itself.

Trowa barely made it to the top of the ramp before another creature broke in from the vent in front of him. He managed to gun it down in a few shots though before he moved towards the wall of panels at the end of the platform. As long as they could keep their backs covered, then they should be in a decent enough position- although he wasn't necessarily thrilled at the thought of being cornered either. But something caught his eye at the bottom of one of the panels. It was partly underneath it, as though someone had slid it across the ground, but there was enough room for him to slide it back out with his foot.

A Pulse Rifle.

What were the chances.

It was a little blood stained but still in good condition- and more importantly… it still had a full clip.

When Heero came up the ramp next, two of those creatures close behind him, he tested the accuracy the weapon had. It was automatic, a bit hard to control but with a controlled burst, it blew off the first creature's arm and the same bullets blew off the second creature's arm as well. A second burst killed two at the same time.

It made handling the crowd situations much easier now.

It didn't take them long to realize that staying still wasn't the best method either and, somehow in the crowd, they managed to split themselves up. He ran back down the ramp they first climbed, while Heero went down another- putting them at opposite ends of the room with plenty of those creatures to go around. Figures. Trowa blasted through three of the creatures with almost no problem before he had to aim more carefully to take down a few selective ones.

A low gurgling noise caught his attention and he turned in reaction to it, ready to gun down whichever creature had made it. But… he didn't do so immediately. This creature was different from the others and one they hadn't encountered before. It was shorter and its stomach had swelled up to nearly consume its entire body, almost giving it a comical look if it wasn't frightening just the same. Its legs were shorter and it walked with a slower, unsteady gait while bladed arms swung side to side.

He wasn't sure if it was because it was new or just… bizarre looking, but he didn't immediately pull the trigger on it. Something about it, something… wasn't right. Just like with the torso on the wall, something about it sent a cold shiver down his spine.

Shaking himself from his focus, he managed to blast off part of its arm and moved to the next, but a few stray bullets struck it in the stomach instead. The flesh erupted and shredded apart as the stomach burst open to release a massive swarm of those… fleshy bits they had ran into before.

Shit.

They were too small to waste ammo on and yet… he was fairly certain he didn't want to leave them to live either. A controlled spray blasted out a majority of them but scattered the others across the floor, making them more difficult to aim at and more of a waste as well.

His focus kept shifting to the remaining creatures though and he put down those closest to him before Heero seemed to handle the rest.

_"Initiation completed. Please confirm ignition."_

He smashed one hand against the console in confirmation.

_"Engines firing."_

The entire room felt like it shook as the engines roared to life once more; immediately erupting steam into the room.

Finally… at least that was taken care of.

Now they could leave this behind them.

They left any remaining creatures behind them as they rushed out of the room and back towards the control room. He found one of those fleshy pieces on his arm and crushed it in his hand before it could do anything- not that he knew if it could anyways.

"Something's finally functioning for once." Wufei remarked, speaking as they rode the cargo lift back to the top floor. "But where one thing succeeds, a dozen more fail."

"Get to the point, Chang." Heero pressed.

"We need to get back to the geostationary orbit, but there's a debris field hanging around and the system failures have shut down the Asteroid Defense System. Long story short, the U.S.G. Libra will be ripped apart. I can start working on it from here but… it's going to need a manual override."

"Great." Heero muttered. "Alright, send the tram our way and we'll do what we can."

"I'll have it make a detour on the way to Hydroponics."

Good. At least they could catch their breath there. Getting back to the control room, they made their way back through the corridors and stepped out onto the waiting platform. The place was empty and quiet… and surprisingly comforting.

Trowa moved to rest the rifle more easily at his side before he remembered that he had it in the first place. "I uh… I found this in the engine room. I don't know why it was down there, but I'm not going to question it."

"SWS Motorized Pulse Rifle, right?"

"Yeah, good condition too considering the situation." Trowa nodded before he offered the weapon towards him. "You want to carry it?"

"Nah, you're more of the heavy arms type."

True.

The grinding of the tram could be heard in the distance and they stepped towards the edge of the platform as it started to come into view. It came to a slow stop before it finally rested; the door giving a brief hiss as it popped open.

"There were heads in jars!"

Trowa paused slightly at the words, watching as Duo walked from one end of the tram to the next without even realizing it had stopped, before he slowly stepped in. The American had his hands covering his face and didn't seem to notice their arrival; Quatre was seated in the far corner of the tram, looking just as lost as the other man.

"I mean… they weren't those creatures either." giving a seemingly defeated sigh, Duo collapsed into one of the open chairs. "How long has this been going on?"

The door closed behind them and the tram gave a short jerk before it pushed onward.

"Something we need to talk about?" Trowa questioned as he gradually took one of the available seats.

Pulling his hands from his face, Duo turned to say something to him before he stopped. "Dude, what happened to your face?"

He touched slightly at the fresher cut, feeling where the skin had peeled apart and the blood had dried down his jaw; the swelling was starting to set in and it was really starting to affect his eye. "I fell down some stairs." Trowa replied before he moved to press his hand against his left shoulder; feeling the clean indention where some of his flesh had been carved out. "Now what were you talking about?"

"We had to report to the ICU to get a DNA sample and… the machinery we needed was in one of the offices." Quatre started instead. "And… whoever office that belonged to had heads in jars sitting on his shelves like they were supposed to be books. They weren't heads of those creatures, they were just… human heads."

"Must be a real nice guy." Heero retorted.

"We just got out of there as quickly as we could."

Trowa nodded. "I don't blame you."

"I think someone was trying to experiment on them too." Duo added. "They had one of them in this test tube thing and… it broke out and… it can regenerate its limbs. No matter how many times we shot them off, it just kept regenerating them again and again. We froze it in the Cryogenics lab, but to be honest, the labs probably won't be able to hold it."

Okay… that was a new problem.

"I think some of these creatures are still alive." Quatre remarked. "I mean… I think the human host is still alive. We ran into one that was fused to the wall and after we shot an explosive at it, there was this… almost this sigh of relief when it died."

"We ran into something like that too." Trowa spoke, half surprised at the similarities. "It wasn't much to fight, it looked like something just stuck a human torso to the wall, but it reacted to us. I don't think it was completely alive but… some part of his mind was."

"If you didn't think it was alive, then why did you just refer to it as a person?"

He chose not to reply. **  
**

"God, I hope Hydroponics is better than this shit." Duo muttered, moving his hands to his face once more. "I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"Get used to it, we'll be here for awhile." Wufei remarked.

"Don't tell me that."

Trowa sighed briefly and moved to run the back of his hand over his brow once more. "Not that it's going to help any, but… there was another one of those creatures we ran into. I don't know if Heero saw it, but at best, I could only describe it as something or rather someone who might've been pregnant when the ship was taken over. It could've just been an extension of the alien mutation, but that's what it looked like."

The lingering silence afterwards wasn't surprising.

"I'm done with this shit." Duo groaned. "Is that where those baby ones came from?"

"Well, there is a nursery onboard, and if you want to consider what body form would be the easiest to take over-"

"Can we not discuss this, Wufei?" Quatre interrupted. "It's bad enough running into these things… I'd prefer not to think about them."

"Makes it easier to kill them." Heero remarked.

"Hey, I'm just telling you what I can. Which reminds me, Hydroponics is coming up and we just lost another ten percent of air filtration, so you might want to hurry it up."

The tram squealed again as it began to slow down as it came to yet another platform.

Trowa watched as the two reluctantly pushed themselves to their feet. "Watch yourselves out there."

"Oh, I'm sure this will be a walk in the park for us." Duo replied sarcastically. "Where the hell are you two going?"

"Up to the Bridge. We have to take care of the asteriod defense system." Trowa answered.

"That sounds like more fun than Hydroponics."**  
**


End file.
